Two people died in a Monday morning crash while fleeing from Aurora police officers in a stolen car, according to the department.
ճ happened at 11:33 a.m. as the driver attempted to turn onto East Alameda Avenue from South Peoria Street and struck a light pole, Aurora Police Department spokesperson Justin Shipley said in a .
Both people inside the car died on impact.
The fatalities happened amid a tenfold increase in Aurora police chases this year.
The agency’s pursuits skyrocketed after the police department opened up its policies to allow officers to chase more suspects. The city conducted 148 police pursuits in the six months after the policy change — up from just 14 chases in that timeframe in 2024. The number of people injured in chases quintupled, with about one in five chases resulting in injury after the change this year.
The vast majority of the increase in chases was from police officers pursuing stolen vehicles, data obtained by The Denver Post showed. Stolen vehicle pursuits accounted for 103 of the 148 pursuits in the six months after the policy change.
Police chases in Aurora skyrocket after policy change, injuries more than quintuple
The four-door sedan that crashed Monday was stolen in Fort Collins two days earlier and spotted in Aurora at 11:26 a.m. Monday, Shipley said.
Police tracked the stolen car to the intersection of East Mississippi Avenue and Peoria and tried to pull the driver over at 11:32 a.m., Shipley said.
The unidentified driver fled north on Peoria, and the Aurora officers pursued. Shipley said the crash happened less than a minute later.
No other cars were involved in the crash.
"The suspect failed to yield to our officers' traffic stop and made the decision to flee and drive erratically," Shipley said during the briefing. "The officers were having a hard time ... safely keeping up with the suspect due to his speed and erratic driving behavior, which resulted in the deadly crash."
Shipley said the male driver at one point weaved into oncoming traffic before attempting the turn onto Alameda, but no other cars were hit.
Both of the crash victims will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office.
Shipley said the two are both believed to be adults, but added that police had yet to confirm their ages or the passenger's gender.
