On August 9, 2021, a Pleasant Prairie police officer attempted to stop a vehicle for equipment and registration violations as the vehicle headed northbound in the 11800 block of 39th Avenue. The vehicle stopped abruptly and then accelerated to a high rate of speed, estimated around 80 miles per hour, in the 9700 block of 39th Avenue. The officer then activated his emergency equipment to initiate a traffic stop.
The fleeing vehicle continued at dangerously high speeds attempting to elude the Pleasant Prairie Police squad. The vehicle turned eastbound onto 85th Street from 39th Avenue and headed northbound on 30th Avenue from 85th Street. The vehicle eventually slowed to a stop, and a rear-seat passenger exited the vehicle, dropping an item. The passenger then returned to the vehicle, which fled again from the officer. The pursuit continued into the City of Kenosha. As the vehicle attempted to make a highspeed turn from 80th Street onto 23rd Avenue, it struck a curb which disabled the vehicle. The front-seat passenger and the rear-seat passenger fled on foot from the crash scene. They were later apprehended by a Pleasant Prairie officer and assisting officers from the Kenosha Police Department.
Pleasant Prairie officers checked the pursuit route for discarded evidence. In the 8300 block of 30th Avenue, where the back-seat passenger exited the vehicle and dropped an item, officers recovered a partially loaded 31 round extended handgun magazine. A small amount of cocaine was also located in the suspect’s vehicle at the crash scene.
The operator of the fleeing vehicle was a 16-year-old female from Kenosha. She was taken into custody at the crash scene and is being held in a juvenile detention facility for recommended charges of Fleeing/Eluding, Second Degree Reckless Endangerment, Resisting, and Possession of Cocaine. The two parties who fled on foot, a 22-year-old male from Kenosha and an 18-year-old male from Waukegan, were both held in the Kenosha County Jail on recommended charges of Obstructing.
Pleasant Prairie Police Chief David Smetana commented on the chase, saying, “This pursuit, and the evidence officers located, highlights the dangers that officers face on every shift and the potential risks these types of dangerous and violent pursuits pose to the public.”