3 dead after car being pursued by police crashes in Indianapolis minutes after police end pursuit

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Three people including a teenage boy died when a car being chased by police in Indianapolis for reckless driving collided with another vehicle only minutes after officers ended their pursuit, authorities said Wednesday.

An Indiana state trooper began the pursuit Tuesday night when the driver of a Dodge Challenger fled the officer’s attempt to pull it over for reckless driving on Indianapolis’ far east side, state police said.

The pursuit lasted about 12 minutes, traversing several city streets before moving into rural areas of adjacent Hancock County and then back toward Indianapolis’ east side, police said. State troopers and other officers tried to deploy stop sticks but couldn’t get into position to stop the Challenger, police said.

After the Challenger left a “rural, low populated area” and began returning to Indianapolis’ east side, troopers ended their pursuit at 9:50 p.m., in part due to the driver’s aggressive, reckless driving.

About five minutes later, police learned there had been a serious crash involving two vehicles close to the area where the pursuit had started.

Officers found that the Challenger, which was carrying three people, drove through a red light and collided at “extremely high speed” with a vehicle being driven by a woman who was traveling alone.

The woman, who died at a hospital, was identified as Makayla Hankins, 21, by the Marion County Coroner’s Office.

Two male passengers who were extricated from the Challenger’s wreckage were pronounced dead at a hospital and identified by the coroner’s office as Christian Leyba-Gonzalez, 14, and Jose Gonzalez Jr., 32.

A man who was driving the Challenger suffered minor crash injuries, police said. He was arrested on a preliminary charge of resisting law enforcement causing death. His name has not been released by police.