MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Memphis Police said on Sunday night that a suspect got away after what FOX13 Investigates discovered to be a pursuit on a city interstate that reached speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
Radio traffic of the chase examined by FOX13 Investigates, from the beginning of the chase, when an officer radios he’s been shot at near Interstate 240 and Perkins Road until the end when the suspect apparently abandoned the vehicle he was driving in West Memphis near Interstate 55 and Bridgeport Road.
The officer said he tried to pull the vehicle over before he was shot at, according to radio traffic.
WATCH: FOX13 Investigates call of shots fired at police while on interstate
The chase lasted about 8 minutes.
Police give varying descriptions of the suspect’s vehicle, describing it first as a “black Chevy new model” that was “possibly a Malibu.”
Minutes later it is described as a blue Malibu.
On Sunday night, police released a short statement on social media noting a bridge closure due to an investigation. Not until two hours later did they note the pursuit and a subsequent search that occurred in a wooded area.
FOX13 Investigates has profiled automated license plate reading cameras, used by state police in Illinois, where they said in an interviewed last year that the rate of case closures stemming from shootings on Chicagoland Expressways had risen by nearly 30%.
Still, Tennessee officials said Monday no agency in West Tennessee had applied to use the technology despite a state law passed at the behest of Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Floyd Bonner and Memphis’ former police director allowing them to do.
FOX13 Investigates reached out to MPD for more information. The department did not respond.
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