A police chase led to a crash involving a PSTA bus that resulted in multiple injuries.
It happened at 25th Street South and 11th Avenue South in St. Petersburg.
According to St. Petersburg Police, a Gulfport police officer pursued a stolen vehicle into St. Petersburg and the suspect’s vehicle crashed into a PSTA bus. The bus then hit the front of an apartment building in Jordan Park.
According to a witness, the bus had just dropped off some passengers.
“We heard the squealing and the police sirens coming along," said Twanta McCrae. "A Gulfport police car was right behind him and that’s when you heard the impact.”
Police say the driver of the car, 21-year-old Derick Mims, along with a passenger were rushed to the hospital as trauma alerts.
Police say the suspect's vehicle had a 2-year-old child in the backseat. The child was taken to All Children's Hospital.
Six people from the bus, including the driver, were also taken to the hospital.
No one was in the apartment when the crash happened but neighbors say they want to know why the pursuit was taking place there in the first place.
"I'm upset because there should not have been a high speed chase in a residential area,” McCrae said. "There's plenty of kids who live around here. Kids could have been out on bicycles. This thing could have been a lot nastier than what it was."
Gulfport's police chief said the officers were following pursuit guidelines.
"The pursuit is constantly evaluated from the moment it’s initiated until the moment it ends,” Gulfport Police Chief Rob Vincent said. “This pursuit was evaluated by the pursuing officer as well as the supervisor and in their judgment it was safe to continue."
Police say they were going about 40 miles-an-hour during the pursuit.