MILWAUKEE — The crash near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's (UWM) campus is raising questions again over whether police were chasing potential suspects or not.
Neighbors wanted to know how this all started and so did we.
After a press conference and several statements from UWM Police, it still wasn't clear. So, we asked police chief David Salazar for more clarification.
Story-high flames right off UWM's campus Thursday. Cell phone video shows the fiery mess.
"As the cars all started burning it just kept getting worse," witness Jennie Sweede said.
UWM Police said they got a call about an attempted car theft in a campus parking lot and when they arrived tried to catch the people.
"One of our officers attempted to stop that vehicle and it fled. The vehicle was fleeing on Oakland Avenue," Chief Salazar said in a press conference Thursday.
After hitting a bicyclist the car continued. Blocks later, it crashed into several more cars.
"I just turned around after hearing a loud noise. It was a black car that's kind of in the center and the white car going at extreme amounts of speed. They collided with the black car," witness Caleb Scherg said.
Surveillance video shows the crash and UWM Police arriving nearly two minutes later.
We wanted clarification on whether police were actively pursuing the car before the crash, but the chancellor and police chief weren't available for an on-camera interview.
Chief Salazar called us Friday afternoon and said he doesn't consider this a pursuit, but a high-risk traffic stop. That's a tactic used to pull someone over who's committed or actively committing a felony crime, like stealing a car.
Police pursuit or a high-risk traffic stop, this is yet another example of reckless driving and car theft within Milwaukee city limits. It's something even police said we're seeing far too often.
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