Seven suspects escaped from police after they fled from a car, which had been rendered disabled by spike strips, following a pursuit from Wisconsin that ended in Winthrop Harbor.
Winthrop Harbor Police Chief Edward Mohn told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that patrol units were notified around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday that the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin Police Department was in pursuit of a vehicle.
The vehicle had been pursued earlier in the day by the Racine, Wisconsin Police Department.
Pleasant Prairie police officers successfully deployed spike strips on the vehicle north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border on Sheridan Road, Mohn said.
The spike strips took out all four tires of the fleeing vehicle, which was traveling southbound on Sheridan Road toward Winthrop Harbor.
Two Winthrop Harbor officers eventually located the disabled vehicle, which had four flat tires, in the 500 block of Park Avenue, Mohn said.
The vehicle was unoccupied and a search of the abandoned vehicle led to officers finding two empty gun boxes for pistols in the vehicle.
Mohn said no firearms or ammunition were recovered.
A witness told police that seven male black occupants of the car had fled westbound from the scene.
They were last seen running through yards of homes and jumping fences.
Due to the empty pistol boxes being found inside the vehicle, multiple police units from Zion, Pleasant Prairie and Winthrop Harbor began a search for the suspects.
Police learned that the suspects had been picked up on Sheridan Road by a dark-colored suburban that fled southbound, Mohn said.
The vehicle was towed from the scene and the Pleasant Prairie Police Department is continuing its investigation.