A police pursuit through West Allis on Friday turned chaotic when a 15-year-old girl jumped from a moving vehicle, and the fleeing car later crashed into a parked vehicle on W. National Avenue. Three people were taken into custody, and a fourth occupant ran off and remained unaccounted for as investigators tried to sort out how the chase began and how it spun out.
What happened
West Allis officers first spotted the vehicle at S. 92nd Street and W. National Avenue and tried to pull it over, but the car took off eastbound on W. National, according to CBS 58. Police say the vehicle had been reported stolen before the attempted stop.
As the car continued along W. National, a 15-year-old girl from West Allis jumped out near S. 84th Street and W. National and was taken into custody, CBS 58 reported. The pursuit did not end there. Officers followed the vehicle until it collided with a parked car around S. 58th Street and W. National, where they arrested a 17-year-old driver from Waukesha and an 18-year-old back-seat passenger from Milwaukee.
West Allis police said the investigation is ongoing and that a fourth occupant bolted from the scene and had not been located at the time of the report, according to CBS 58. No immediate charges were announced in the station’s report. Prosecutors are expected to review the case and decide on referrals, including any juvenile processing for the underage occupant.
Chases and policy context
The incident unfolded as Milwaukee-area police agencies continue to wrestle with how and when to chase fleeing vehicles. Earlier this year, Milwaukee police tightened their rules on vehicle pursuits, narrowing when officers can engage and layering in more safety checks, as they clamped down on car chases. Those revisions followed a run of pursuit-related crashes and mounting concern over injuries and civilian deaths.
The department’s Standard Operating Procedure 660 instructs officers to consider road layout, traffic conditions and the number of people inside a fleeing vehicle before deciding whether to keep a chase going, a framework outlined by WUWM. On paper, the goal is to balance catching suspects with not escalating already dangerous situations on busy city streets.
