The officer never caught up to the white sedan before the crash, according to radio traffic.
“I could see a white car quickly approaching in my rearview mirror with lights of two police cruisers following,” said Vince McKelvey, a former Dayton Daily News editor. McKelvey pulled out of the way after the white sedan roared past. The first cruiser came by a short time later.
The white sedan “was passing cars in the left lane on the left,” McKelvey said. He said there was no way he could estimate the speed of the white sedan. “It was fast, though,” he said.
Killed in the collision were Dayton residents Phillip Lane II, 23, and Erik Sanford, 24, both in the white sedan. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. A third person in the white sedan was taken to the Kettering Medical Center.
The woman driver of the other vehicle was taken by helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital. Authorities had not released the names of the injured as of Tuesday afternoon.
McKelvey said as emergency crews worked to free the woman from the remains of her vehicle, the driver remained slumped motionless at the wheel of the white sedan. After several minutes, an emergency worker draped a large piece of white fabric over the driver’s side window, hiding the body from view.
Sgt. Jay Phares of Miami Twp. Police Department said he could not comment on the pursuit, saying the matter is under investigation. The department does have a pursuit policy.
Police and court records show Sanford was convicted and jailed on a misdemeanor assault conviction in 2009 and spent nine months in jail on a 2010 weapons charge. Lane was sentenced to five years probation in 2009 for heroin trafficking. In 2011, he was sentenced to another five years probation for possession of heroin.
Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said Sanford had been identified as a member of the Dayton View Hustlers street gang. The gang has been identified by police as a major source of heroin sales in the Dayton area.
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