Three injured in car chase

A man left his 1980 Plymouth Volare idling Monday morning in front of his home, and another man and his girlfriend jumped in and led police on a chase that wrecked three cars and injured three people, police said.

Brian Tice, 24, was arrested after the chase.

The Volare’s owner reported the car stolen after it was taken from his home at 1407 E. Rich at about 8:15 a.m., Spokane Police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

A short time later, Officer Tim Conley spotted the Volare and began following it. He turned on his overhead lights but the driver ran the stop sign at Pittsburg Street and Empire Avenue and struck a black Chevy Blazer.

The Blazer skidded into the yard at 1702 E. Empire and rolled onto its side, Cpl. Tom Lee said.

The woman, whom police said was Tice’s girlfriend, was thrown from the Volare during the collision with the Blazer, Lee said.

“Witnesses said it looked like she was trying to get out before the wreck and the wreck helped” throw her from the stolen car, he said. “She had bumps and bruises from hitting the street. She’s lucky she’s not hurt too bad.”

Both the driver of the Blazer and the woman, whom police questioned and released, were treated at the scene.

After that crash, Tice continued to flee in the Volare and went east on Empire, turned south on Crestline Street and east again on Princeton Avenue, police said. The driver attempted a right turn onto Cook Street and collided head-on with a Subaru Impreza driving north.

Officer Kelly Busse said the pursuing officer used his patrol car to keep the driver from fleeing. Tice jumped out with the car still in gear and fled into a nearby apartment complex, police said.

The disabled but still moving Volare then continued in a circle before coming to rest against a tree, Busse said.

Officers chased the suspect and arrested him in the apartment complex, Busse said.

“He’s at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries,” Busse said of Tice.

The driver of the blue Impreza, Hanna Smart, was shaken up from the collision, but otherwise seemed fine, Busse said.

Gayle Milward, who lives at the intersection where the chase ended, said police sirens woke her and her husband, Rick.

“We were trying to help the lady in the blue car. She was kind of shaken up and scared,” Milward said.

Jason Lyons, 29, said he saw the Volare speed past his house on Princeton. “He was doing 60 or 70 mph,” Lyons said. “Then we hear this crunch and we ran down here really fast.”