Car fleeing police after armed disturbance in Walmart parking lot ends in crash in Mission
A car fleeing police after an armed disturbance in the parking of a Walmart crashed in Mission, injuring three people Tuesday evening, a police chief said.
The incident began after a group of six or eight people were involved in a pushing and shoving match that spilled out into the parking lot as they were leaving the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 4701 Mission Road in Westwood, said Police Chief Curt Mansell.
A couple, who were bystanders, pulled out their phone and started filming, angering members of the group that was involved the disturbance, Mansell said.
They walked over and slapped the phone out of the hand of the person filming and verbal disturbance happened between them too.
It’s unclear what happened next, but police were reviewing surveillance video, Mansell said. Apparently one of the people involved in the original disturbance pulled out a gun and tossed it to a friend.
“Obviously this spooked the couple who was filming this and words were exchanged and they went their separate ways,” Mansell said.
The people involved in the original disturbance got into two separate cars and left. Police received a call reporting an armed disturbance in the parking lot with two vehicle descriptions.
As Westwood police were headed to the parking lot, Fairway officers spotted one of the cars and tried to stop it. A short chase ensued that ended in a crash that took out fences and might have hit a home near 61st Street and Roe Avenue in Mission.
Westwood offers were not involved in the chase, Mansell said.
The driver and a passenger were injured in the crash. They were taken into custody and taken to the hospital for treatment of their injuries, Mansell said. Another passenger fled but was later caught. That person was also taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries.
Westwood police were finishing up their report and planned to submit it to the district attorney’s office for review to see if charges were warranted, Mansell said.
“We’re going to take this report as if it meets the criteria of an aggravated assault — you know creating fear or apprehension by the use of a weapon,” Mansell said.
