JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two men died, one was critically injured and another person, possibly a teen, was also hurt when an SUV that was speeding away from an attempted traffic stop flipped and crashed into a utility pole early Friday morning in San Marco, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The crash at Nira Street and Kings Avenue was first reported around 3:45 a.m., forcing road closures in the area.
Nira Street, which is across from the Kings Avenue garage, was closed from Kings Avenue to Hendricks Avenue, and part of Kings Avenue was also blocked early Friday morning.
Sgt. Robert Hungerford with the JSO Traffic Homicide Unit said the incident began Friday morning when someone reported an attempted car burglary outside of a home on Clairmont Road in the Spring Park area, about five minutes southeast of the crash site.
News4JAX also spoke with the victim of the attempted theft, who asked to remain anonymous as he took us through the events that led up to the crash.
He said that the car the suspects tried to steal was an early-model Kia Soul.
He adds that he was awakened around 3:20 a.m. by his dog barking. When he went outside, he saw three people breaking into his mother’s black Kia Soul. He yelled at them and chased them down the street. The suspects then jumped into a red SUV and sped away.
The victim also showed video of the Kia being towed away. Broken glass from the shattered driver’s side window was all that remained from the break-in.
He also said that the suspects tried to steal the Kia by inserting something into the ignition slot, which prevented the victim from using his key.
Shortly after, police were called.
When officers responded, they found the vehicle with a broken window and realized the steering column had been tampered with, upgrading the call to an attempted car theft, Hungerford said.
A witness in the area reported seeing a red Chevy Trailblazer driving “suspiciously” around the time of the attempted theft, according to JSO.
Officers radioed that information out, and an officer in the San Marco area spotted a red Chevy Trailblazer driving fast on Hendricks Avenue. He attempted to pull the SUV over, but it sped away from him even faster, and he opted not to pursue for safety reasons, Hungerford said.
Not long after, that same red Chevy Trailblazer crashed about a half-mile away at Nira Street and Kings Avenue, flipping and hitting both a utility pole and a telephone pole, Hungerford said.
One of the men inside died at the scene, and the three other occupants were taken to a hospital, where one of them died. Another occupant is in critical condition, and the fourth, possibly a juvenile, was listed as stable, Hungerford said.
They are still working to identify the names and ages of all those involved.
Hungerford said they are still putting the puzzle pieces together, and they are not clear whether the occupants of the red SUV were involved in the attempted car theft.
The red SUV they were in, however, was reported stolen from the downtown area in January.