Police search for man suspected of fleeing after causing fatal wrong-way crash in east Colorado Springs
UPDATE: Police are searching for a man suspected of stealing a 1990 Chevy Suburban after the fatal crash. The car theft suspect has been identified by police as 25-year-old Nathaniel Patric Stager. Police did not directly link him to the fatal crash.
Authorities are requesting the public’s assistance in locating the stolen Suburban, described as being “white over blue” with Colorado license plates JGO883.
Nathaniel Stager
Colorado Springs police searched unsuccessfully for hours Sunday for a man believed to have fled after causing a fatal wrong-way wreck involving at least three vehicles on North Powers Boulevard near East Platte Avenue.
According to police, a man and a woman got into a fight while they were heading south on Powers about 12:25 p.m. The man is believed to have deliberately steered their vehicle into the northbound lanes, crossing the median and colliding with a vehicle heading the other way, police spokesman Lt. Howard Black said.
A male driving the northbound vehicle, which spun around and collided with a third vehicle, was killed in the crash, Black said. Two people in the third vehicle were taken to the hospital.
The female driver of the first vehicle also was hospitalized, while her male companion fled on foot, Black said.
Soon after the crash, which police said was being investigated as “criminal,” an alert was issued asking the public to be on the lookout for an armed white or Hispanic male, 35 to 40 years old, with a full-sleeve tattoo on his right arm, wearing a white T-shirt and gray pants.
Police did not release the name of the victim or the suspect.
For hours after the crash, police radio traffic described officers responding to possible sightings of the suspect in the area, including chasing him in Harding Nursery just north of Platte on the east side of Powers.
A woman who answered the phone at the nursery shortly after 3 p.m. said the business was shut down briefly but had since reopened.
Multiple lanes of North Powers Boulevard were closed for hours between East Platte Avenue and Galley Road as police investigated the crash and searched for the suspect.
Wreckage from the crash was strewn across the northbound lanes of North Powers Boulevard near where three smashed vehicles had come to rest hundreds of yards apart in the middle of the major roadway.
If the death is ruled a homicide, it would be the 17th this year in the city.