One teen-aged suspect is in critical condition and three others were apprehended after police said pursuit of a stolen car led to a high-speed chase that ended in a crash near the Terry Parkway exit to the West Bank Expressway Monday afternoon.
The injured suspect was said to be 17 years old. Police said he had a semi-automatic weapon under his leg. The other suspects were said to be two 16-year-old young men and a 15-year-old young woman. Deputies said two other guns were found on or near the scene.
According to JPSO spokesman John Fortunato, deputies were on patrol on Manhattan Blvd. manning a mobile camera car when a report came in of a stolen vehicle – a 2005 Pontiac minivan.
The deputy on the scene tried to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle, which then sped away. Deputies said that when the van got stuck in traffic near Manhattan and the West Bank Expressway, the 15-year-old girl got out and ran through a nearby service station parking lot. Fortunato said she was apprehended there.
The van then went onto the West Bank Expressway at a high rate of speed toward the Crescent City Connection with an officer in pursuit.
Fortunato said one sheriff’s office vehicle was nearly rammed by the stolen van before it exited at the Terry Parkway exit. At the bottom of the off-ramp, the van slammed into the back of a Ford van, causing extensive damage to the suspects’ vehicle.
Fortunato said the 17-year-old driver, identified as Denzel Daggs with an address on Manhattan Blvd., was pinned inside the vehicle and had to be extricated. He was taken to the hospital and said to be in critical, but stable condition.
The two 16-year-olds ran from the van after the crash, deputies said both were apprehended and that one of them had been seen tossing a gun as he ran.
After a brief foot pursuit, both suspects were apprehended. The weapon was described as a .380 Cal semi-auto handgun.
All four suspects face numerous charges for Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, multiple counts of Resisting Arrest, Weapons violations, along with numerous traffic offenses.
