1 killed, 2 hurt in crash during police pursuit in south suburbs

DOLTON (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A police pursuit that started with shoplifting suspects fleeing a Calumet City department store ended in a crash that left a teenage boy dead and two other people injured in Dolton.

Police were called at 3:01 p.m. to Macy’s at 1 River Oaks Center in Calumet City for reports of several people taking merchandise and running out of the store, according to a statement from Calumet City police. One suspect was detained at the scene, but several others got into a dark-colored vehicle – which had been reported stolen – and drove away.

An officer conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, but it drove away again before the officer could walk up to it, Calumet City police said. The officer pursued the vehicle until it crashed at Sibley Boulevard and Chicago Road in Dolton.

The crash happened about 3:15 p.m., according to Dolton police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. One of the fleeing vehicle’s occupants, 15-year-old Dolton resident Ryan Thomas, was taken to Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, where he was pronounced dead at 3:40 p.m.

An autopsy Saturday did not rule on Thomas’s cause and manner of death pending further studies, the medical examiner’s office said.

Two other people in the vehicle were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not thought to be life threatening, Calumet City police said. Charges were pending Saturday afternoon.