The pursuit began late Tuesday afternoon after deputies attempted to make a traffic stop on a tan Toyota Avalon with four occupants in the 1100 block of West Pleasant Street, Clark said. The car initially stopped but then quickly fled.
Deputies followed onto Heard Avenue when three people in the car “jumped out” and ran.
“None of the occupants were located, and it was later found that the driver of the vehicle had been picked up by a black Buick Verano,” Clark said.
During the search for the suspects, the sheriff’s office was informed that a man near 517 S. Light St. “was reporting that he was struck by the suspect vehicle during the pursuit,” Clark said. The man said “he was walking down the street and got struck from behind.”
He was taken to Springfield Regional Medical Center.
“Cruiser camera footage does not show any pedestrians being struck or anywhere near the pursuit,” Clark said.
Deputies on Wednesday returned to South Light Street to interview neighbors about the report made about the “pedestrian strike”
“Through the course of these interviews they were able to obtain a video from a doorbell camera of(the Springfield man) on the phone with an unknown individual, telling them that he jumped from the fleeing car and injured his leg,” Clark said.
Detectives spoke with the man at the hospital, where he Clark said he admitted to investigators that he was in the vehicle and jumped out during the pursuit “because he wanted nothing to do with what was going on.”
The case remains open and an investigation into the remaining occupants of the vehicle and their locations continues.
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