High Speed Chase Ends in Frightening Crash into Day Care

Four children and three adults were injured right after noon today when an SUV being pursued by police at high speeds crashed into a day care center, reported to be the Stepping Stones Child Care, located in the Keystone Corporate Square building on 45^th Street in Indianapolis. Seventeen kids were inside at the time of the crash, police said.

Police reported that a robbery took place at a Dollar General Store at 51^st Street and Allisonville Road, on the far Northeast side of Indianapolis. Police observed the suspect vehicle, a red colored Jeep Grand Cherokee, and began to pursue the vehicle, leading to a high speed chase. Details are not yet public, but the suspect's vehicle veered off Allisonville Road past 47^th Street, careened through a parking lot, tearing out bushes, and ended up crashing into the brick wall on the exterior of a daycare center.

Video from the WISH TV news helicopter broadcasting live from the air over the scene showed the red Jeep fully half-way into the day care center, which occupies a portion of the much larger Keystone Corporate Square building. The only part of the vehicle still outside was literally the back half of the Jeep. The hole in the wall appeared to be only a few brick widths larger than the outline of the vehicle itself.

One tenant of the building was quoted by WTHR.com: "It was utter chaos. This red SUV plowed into the building and I guess there was several children, it's a day care center and several children were hurt," said Leon Calderon. "They heard a big boom, they thought it was a gun went off or something."

At least two suspects were reported to be in custody, and the aerial views showed one person in handcuffs sitting on a nearby curb, completely surrounded by police.

Five ambulances were seen leaving the site of the incident, and there was a large volume of both fire and police personnel and vehicles on site. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department mobile command center had been dispatched to the site as well.

Fortunately, most of the children normally in the day care center were at a show in downtown Indianapolis. The field trip to Disney on Ice kept the majority of the normal occupancy of 70 children away from the day care at the time of the incident. Eyewitness News reporter Anne Marie Tiernon reports on WTHR.com that one of the children is in critical condition at Methodist Hospital, and that the other three injured children are in stable condition.

Sources:

Television live news broadcasts
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=11614712
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/crime/police-chase-ends-when-car-crashes-into-daycare
http://ssccm.net/index.html