WICHITA, Kansas – More details are being released about a fatal crash over the weekend.
Officers were called to a residence near Harry and Rock Rd. just after 4 a.m. Sunday to a report of a domestic disturbance.
Police say a 42-year-old woman reported her boyfriend was throwing her against a wall in the bedroom when her son tried to step in to help.
“Apparently her son, who is 19, tried to intervene or tried to verbally stop the abuse,” said Gordon Bassham with the Wichita Police Department. “The suspect in this case pointed a handgun at him and threatened him. That's when he fled the scene in a pick-up truck as officers were approaching the residence.”
Officers pursued the man, identified as 33-year-old Marcellas Childs, for about eight minutes until they reached the area of 21st and Broadway. That’s when a supervisor called off the pursuit due to safety risks.
The suspect continued on to the area of 15th and Arkansas where he crashed into a power pole and his truck caught on fire. Officers pulled Childs from the burning vehicle and performed CPR on him, but he was pronounced dead just after 5 a.m. at the hospital.
Police are still investigating how fast Childs was going when he crashed, but do say the impact of the crash was enough to snap the power pole in half and move the portion that was in the ground some six inches.
