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Car Chase Ends With Dodge Intrepid Driving Into Wicker Park Tree: Witnesses

By Alisa Hauser | August 15, 2016 7:39pm
 A Dodge Intrepid plowed into a tree in Wicker Park around 5:35 p.m. Monday, witnesses said.
A Dodge Intrepid plowed into a tree in Wicker Park around 5:35 p.m. Monday, witnesses said.
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DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser

WICKER PARK — A low speed car chase through Wicker Park's namesake park ended when the car that was being pursued drove into a tree on Monday, according to witnesses.

"I've been living here all my life and never seen anything like that," said Josue Alcatara, who was playing basketball in the park when two cars drove across the basketball court and softball fields.

Alcatara said that the driver of a black Camaro was chasing the driver of a blue Dodge Intrepid around 5:40 p.m. The cars were not going very fast, he said.

The driver of the Camaro was shouting, "Why'd you hit my car?" to the driver of the Dodge Intrepid, Alcatara said.

Another witness who arrived just after the crash said she saw both cars stopped and "two men chasing each other and yelling."

Officer Thomas Sweeney, a Chicago Police spokesman, provided a bare bones account of the incident.

"Officers responded to a call of a traffic crash around 5:40 p.m, in the 1400 block of North Damen. A vehicle crashed into a tree. There were no injuries," Sweeney said.

Around 6:30 p.m., only the Dodge Intrepid was still onsite. Around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, a tow truck came to remove the car, according to Leroy Garry, a frequent park visitor.

Mike Payette, a 26-year-resident of Wicker Park, lives across the street from where the crash happened. Payette saw the aftermath of the crash and talked with responding officers, who said the trouble between the two drivers started on Ashland Avenue.

"The wrecked car allegedly sideswiped the other car around Ashland. A chase began and the sideswiper ended up driving through the middle of the park with the chase car behind," Payette said.

He said the person in the chase car was still in the park when the police arrived.

"I can't remember it being this bad. I am just glad that no one was killed," he said.

The scene after a chase ended with a car driving into a tree. [Courtney Small]

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