The Rapid City Police Department’s Critical Accident Reconstruction Team is currently investigating a serious crash that occurred around 9:25 a.m. on January 3rd.
The incident began after local law enforcement received information about a drug transaction involving a suspect vehicle. Additional information provided to law enforcement indicated that the occupants were armed.
Deputies of the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office located the suspect vehicle and a traffic stop was attempted on the vehicle in the area of Highway 44 and Teewinot Drive. The vehicle did not stop for law enforcement. The pursuit lasted about two minutes and proceeded through a small area of Rapid Valley. As the suspect vehicle was southbound on Jolly Lane, it ran a stop sign at the intersection with Twilight Drive. The suspect vehicle struck a pickup which was westbound on Twilight Drive.
Four occupants of the suspect vehicle, and one occupant of the pickup truck were transported from the scene for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash, some critical at the time of this release.
“This is a very serious crash that warrants a high level of detail in the ensuing investigation,” says Captain James Johns, Commander of the RCPD’s Patrol Division. “The RCPD’s Critical Accident Reconstruction Team is a highly skilled group of crash reconstructionists, but the seriousness of this crash means it going to take time to properly investigate.”
The entirety of the investigation into this incident has been handed over to the RCPD, however, police do not anticipate having more details about the investigation until a later date.
