SALT LAKE CITY -- Police say an armed and dangerous man is on the run Friday after crashing and hijacking several cars.
In only 9 minutes, police say a man crashed into 12 cars and hijacked three vehicles. Police on scene say none of their vehicles were chasing him, but the suspect appeared to be running from something
“I've never been on an accident where I've had so many vehicles involved,” said Detective Cody Lougy of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
It all started when a white Subaru lost control, tearing through a garden and hitting three parked vehicles before crashing into a pole.
“He damaged two cars, totaled two cars, and made a mess of my parking lot,” said Keith Brown, manager of Tire World.
Brown was working and watched as the driver got out of the car.
“Given the devastation and condition of the car, the fact he walked away from that is just incredible,” Brown said.
That’s when police say the man ran across the street.
“As he was running across the street, he pulled out a gun and someone said, 'He's got a gun, he's got a gun!' and that's when everyone went rushing back in,” said David Brimhall, who was at the business across the street.
They watched as the man hijacked a silver SUV and headed westbound on 2700 South, crashing into several vehicles along the way.
“I asked him to sit down and wait for the ambulance,” said one man who did not want to be identified. That man said he ran to the crash scene where the suspected carjacker was. But the suspect wasn’t stopping.
“He closed in on me and I looked down and he had a gun on me,” the victim said.
The suspect demanded his keys and drove off in his pickup truck. Police say the man got on the freeway then exited at 3300 South and 500 West, where he hit three more vehicles. Police say he was last seen driving away in a blue van near 10th North and 900 West.
“Fortunately we have no injuries, just a lot of property damage here, and we're counting our blessings there,” Lougy said.
Police are still looking for the suspect. They describe him as a black man with a shaved head and dressed in all black and fleeing in a blue van. If you have any details, call police at 801-799-3000.
