SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A 16-year-old has died and another juvenile has been injured after a Friday night, high-speed police chase involving two law enforcement agencies in Sacramento ended in a violent crash near Norwood and Main Avenues.
Officials with the Sacramento County Coroner's Office have identified the 16-year-old driver who died in the crash as Elvis Umanzor of Sacramento.
Around 8:48 p.m. Friday, officers with the Sacramento Police Department say they tried to pull over a car in the area of 65th Street and 14th Avenue for what authorities describe as a "vehicle code violation."
The car did not stop and officers began chasing it, according to the Sacramento Police Department.
Three minutes later, the Sacramento Police Department said they called off the chase and all officers stopped pursuing the car.
"During this pursuit, the vehicle was driving erratically on the roadway and was going approximately 100 miles per hour. A short time later, the pursuit was canceled," said Sacramento County Sheriff Sergeant Kionna Rowe. "Moments later, our officers saw his vehicle on the freeway and they then initiated a pursuit."
Deputies with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, who picked up the chase after the Sacramento Police Department canceled theirs, say the driver of the car continued to drive erratically at speeds higher than 115 miles per hour.
After weaving in and out of lanes of traffic on both surface streets and freeways in the capital city, the car continued back into the jurisdiction area of the Sacramento Police Department, according to police.
Sheriff's Office officials say the high-speed chase came to a deadly end when the driver of the car crashed into a tree near Norwood and Main Avenues.
"It appears that the vehicle lost control sometime during the pursuit and crashed," Rowe said.
One passenger of the car, identified only as a juvenile, was taken to an area hospital suffering from unknown injuries. The driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene, officials say.
"I can't imagine the pain the family is going to go through," Rowe said. "This is a tragedy all the way around, it's just unfortunate."
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office is now investigating the chase and what led law enforcement to begin pursuing the car. Meanwhile, the Sacramento Police Department is investigating the crash itself.
"It's an unfortunate situation," Rowe said. "It is going to be kind of a joint effort here because we are in Sac PD's jurisdiction."
Officials said during a news conference Friday night, that deputies did not attempt intervention techniques before the deadly crash.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's general orders outline that intervention techniques such as PIT maneuvers, spike strips and stop sticks are allowed to be used by deputies when they believe the continued movement of the car could place others in imminent danger, when the risk of harm to the public is greater than the risk of harm to deputies or suspects involved in attempting to intervene and when other means of apprehension have been considered but rejected.
Officials say they are investigating whether an item may have been thrown out of the suspect's car during the chase.
Police took to social media just before 9:30 p.m. Friday to advise the public of the crash in the area of Norwood and Main Avenues.
