What’s left of the Fireman’s Monument after the crash.
Suspect Escapes After High Speed Chase Ends in Flames at Fireman’s Circle
At approximately 2:30 a.m. on August 28, Rye Police Department’s stationary LPR system alerted them to a stolen 2005 Mercedes Benz from Norwalk, Connecticut entering Rye. RPD immediately dispatched patrol units to canvass the City looking for the stolen vehicle.
One of the officers spotted the vehicle in the area of Milton Road and Oakland Beach Avenue, and the driver immediately took off at a high rate of speed traveling north on Milton.
As units attempted to catch up, they temporarily lost sight of the vehicle. Approaching Fireman’s Circle, they observed that the car had left the roadway, crashed into the monument, and continued over a rock wall into a resident’s front yard. As officers ran to the vehicle, which was now on fire, to check on the occupants, one man ran from the vehicle.
An RPD officer pursued the suspect, but lost sight of him on Palisade Road. No one else was in the car. The Rye Fire Department was dispatched to tend to the burning vehicle. A perimeter was set up with assistance from Port Chester, Harrison, and Westchester County police departments. Harrison PD and Westchester County PD provided K-9 tracking dogs.
The suspect remains at-large.
The incident fits a pattern of repeated criminal activity in many jurisdictions in Westchester, Putnam, and Fairfield counties. A group of youths from Connecticut enter neighborhoods looking for unlocked cars, which they can easily and quickly burgle. When they find a vehicle with the keys or key fob in the vehicle, they steal it.
Rye Police remind residents: Lock your car and remove the key/fob. These groups of youth continue to prey on Rye’s neighborhoods because they have been so successful here.
