A stolen car with its headlights off barreled through Milwaukee's near west side early Monday and slammed into a marked police squad car after officers had called off their pursuit, having lost sight of the vehicle. The pursuit began when officers tried to stop the driver for reckless driving. A 20-year-old driver was taken into custody and rushed to the hospital, while a passenger bolted from the wreck on foot and remains at large.
According to FOX6 News, Milwaukee police initiated the pursuit around 2 a.m. near Sherman Boulevard and Capitol Drive after a driver behaving recklessly refused to pull over. The vehicle, which had been reported stolen out of Milwaukee, was running without headlights when it collided with a marked Milwaukee police vehicle near North 32nd Street and West Lisbon Avenue, per the same outlet's reporting.
A 46-year-old Milwaukee police officer suffered minor injuries in the crash and was treated at the scene, FOX6 reported. The 20-year-old driver was taken into custody and brought to a local hospital for treatment, while an unidentified passenger fled the vehicle on foot and has not been located, according to the report. Officers also recovered a stolen firearm inside the car, the station noted.
Passenger Still Being Sought
Milwaukee police are now asking the public for help tracking down the passenger who ran. As reported by WISN, anyone with information is asked to call police at 414-935-7360, or to stay anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS or through P3 Tips.
Monday's crash landed in the middle of a broader conversation about how often — and how dangerously — Milwaukee police pursuits end. Citywide data reviewed by TMJ4 shows MPD logged 970 pursuits in 2025, a 1.3% increase over the year before, with 230 ending in a suspect crash and 193 ending with the suspect getting away. The department posted a 58% apprehension rate for the year, the outlet reported, even as nine people died in pursuit-related incidents in 2025 — three of them the people being chased and six bystanders with no part in the chase.
A Mixed Picture on Pursuit Safety
Speed remained a persistent factor in those chases: 70% of 2025 pursuits topped 75 mph, TMJ4's report found, down only slightly from 71% the year before. More recent figures suggest some improvement. Milwaukee police reported that vehicle pursuits fell 24% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to WTMJ, and the department said none of those pursuits had ended in a death through June 30.
That same first-half 2026 data showed drug-related pursuit incidents climbing 25% even as overall chases dropped, per WTMJ's reporting. Monday's incident adds another entry to that tally — one that, for now, leaves police still searching for a passenger who escaped the wreck on foot.
