Police chase starting in Kane County ends in Chicago crash, sheriff's office says; 1 charged
A man is charged after a police chase that started with a tip in Batavia, Illinois, ended in a crash in Chicago overnight Monday.
The Kane County Sheriff's Office said shortly before 1 a.m., their officers got a tip about a gray Infiniti with no license plate speeding south on Washington Street at Fabyan Parkway. The tipster also told police that people in the car were wearing ski masks.
The sheriff's office said their deputies tried to execute a traffic stop at Church and Bilter roads in Aurora, but instead the vehicle took off west onto Indian Trail, then onto Orchard Road and finally onto the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88).
The Kane County Sheriff's Office said Downers Grove police were able to spike the Infinity as it went east on I-88, but it kept fleeing along the Kennedy Expressway until it struck a car near Central Park and Roosevelt Road in Chicago's Homan Square neighborhood.
It continued on for another mile before police caught up to the driver.
The driver of the Infiniti was taken into custody. He has been identified as 19-year-old Milton Boni, and he is facing multiple charges related to the crash including speeding, property damage, causing bodily harm and concealing or altering a vehicle's license plate.
Two passengers in the car, including a minor, were also identified and there are possible pending charges against them, Kane County officials said. They were taken to Mt. Sinai hospital to be checked out following the crash and were released a short time later.
One person in the other car, which was not at all related to the chase, was injured but is expected to recover.
University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor David Harris, who specializes in search and seizure law and police issues, said these kinds of police chases are becoming less common as departments rewrite their policies to minimize risks.
"I just think, you know, nationally, the trend is clearly towards restricting high-speed chases to the situations where they're really necessary," he said. "Most jurisdictions are moving in that direction simply because of the risk to the public, to the officer, and even to the people in the fleeing car. Whatever it is, it better be worth taking those risks to put on a high-speed chase."
Harris said police should only engage in such chases when "something is at stake other than a traffic offense."
CBS News Chicago also asked Harris about the charges.
"There's no indication in the report that the vehicle was stolen. There's no indication that the people in the vehicle were engaged in some kind of dangerous felony activity," Harris said, "only that the police had tried to pull them over, and there was no cooperation."
CBS News Chicago reached out to the Kane County Sheriff's Department to ask them about their police pursuit policies, but have not yet heard back.
