A man was killed in a crash after allegedly driving away from police Wednesday evening in northwest Indiana.
An officer on patrol about 6:40 p.m. recognized a black Chevrolet Monte Carlo that was parked at a gas pump at a station in the 6400 block of Calumet Avenue in Hammond, Indiana, according to a statement from Hammond police.
The officer recognized the car from a previous call about the Monte Carlo fleeing police and remembered that the driver in that incident was wanted on an active arrest warrant, police said.
The officer tried to talk to the man as he walked out of the store toward the Monte Carlo, but the man ran to the car, got in and locked the door, police said. He then drove away, heading west on 165th Street.
The officer followed him in a squad car with its emergency lights on but lost sight of the Monte Carlo after it made a turn, according to police. As the officer approached the area he’d last seen the car, he found it flipped over and emitting a cloud of smoke.
The driver, identified as 25-year-old Antonio Short, was on the ground nearby in the 400 block of 165th Street, having been apparently ejected from the Monte Carlo, police and the Lake County coroner’s office said.
Paramedics were called, but Short, who lived in Hammond, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
The coroner’s office said he died of blunt force trauma he suffered in the crash.
Indiana State Police is investigating the crash.