MIAMI COUNTY, Ind. — Police arrested three teens from South Bend after a pursuit that ended in Miami County.
Around 6 p.m. Monday, an Indiana State Police trooper reported a Jeep Cherokee driving northbound on U.S. 31 in Miami County at 115 mph. Trooper Kyle Miller located the Jeep near County Road 500 South and tried to pull it over.
The driver, later identified as a 15-year-old boy, didn't stop and instead led Miller on a chase. The chase ended when the Jeep crashed into a ditch on U.S. 31 near Eel River Cemetery Road.
After the crash, a 16-year-old girl and 19-year-old Tavonta Lawrence got out of the car and ran away. Troopers immediately got the girl into custody. She's in the South Bend Juvenile Detention Center for resisting law enforcement.
Police caught the 15-year-old driver, and he was taken to the South Bend Juvenile Detention Center on charges of auto theft, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, possession of stolen property, reckless driving, aggressive driving, and operating a vehicle without ever having received a driver’s license.
Police arrested Lawrence, the 19-year-old, after using a police dog to track down his location nearby in the woods. He's being held in the Miami County Jail for resisting law enforcement.
No one was injured in the crash.
During the investigation, police found the Jeep had been reported stolen out of Mishawaka, Indiana.
ISP troopers Andrew Baldwin, Dakota Anderson, and David Kewish, sergeants Adam Moor and Sergeant Chad James, and the Miami County Sheriff's Office assisted in the incident.
