Officer hurt in double fatality crash during Plainfield police pursuit
UPDATE: The Hendricks County Coroner has identified the two people killed as 78-year-old Barbara Williams and 79-year-old Bennie Williams.
PLAINFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — Two people have died and an officer was hurt in a crash Friday afternoon during a police pursuit in Plainfield, police say.
Information about the two people who died was not immediately available. The officer, who has not been public identified, was stable when taken to a hospital.
Sgt. Jim Gillespie with Plainfield Police Department said Friday night at the crash scene that, shortly before 5:45 p.m. Friday, dispatchers received a report of a person down at 2305 E. Main St. which is the Long John Silver’s restaurant at the intersection of U.S. 40/Main Street, Clarks Creek Road, and Deerfield Drive. It’s just east of Quaker Boulevard.
Gillespie said an officer arrived to find several people around a white Kia outside the restaurant. He did not say whether the Kia was a car or an SUV.
In the parking lot, the officer then got into a fight with one of the people, and then the Kia fled eastbound on U.S. 40.
The pursuit began. The officer had lights and siren on, but they were not on for part of the pursuit, Gillespie said.
At the intersection of U.S. 40/East Main Street and Smith Road, the driver of a gray Ford car apparently did not hear the siren or see the lights in time, and the police SUV crashed into that car.
The officer in the crash, who has been with Plainfield police for five years, was to be placed on administrative leave as the Avon Police Department conducts the investigation, Gillespie said.
The Kia was later found unoccupied. A suspect was still being sought on Friday night.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the occupants of the vehicle involved in the accident,” Plainfield police said in a news release issued Friday night.