Police searching for driver of stolen car that caused unmarked cop car to crash into a light pole

Two people were hurt in the chaos, including an officer treated for facial fractures and cuts, and a civilian driver who remains in stable condition.

(FOR USE AS DESIRED) A multiple exposure photograph of a Philadelphia Police Department cruiser parked on North Broad Street September 10, 2019.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

by Mike Newall

Published Aug. 31, 2024, 7:34 p.m. ET

Philadelphia Police were searching Saturday for the driver of a stolen vehicle who led cops on a wild chase along Roosevelt Boulevard that left two plainclothes officers struggling to escape from their car before it burst into flames.

Two people were hurt in the chaos, police said: an officer treated for facial fractures and cuts, and a 35-year-old man who was hospitalized and reported in stable condition.

The matter began shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, police said, when officers tried breaking up a large group of cars that gathered for a car meet-up near 8600 Bustleton Avenue in Rhawnhurst.

The driver of a 2020 gray Nissan Altima, reported stolen out of Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County, fled the scene, speeding over a median on Roosevelt Boulevard, striking a Gold Chevy Malibu and a police car. No one inside those vehicles was hurt, police said.

The driver raced away and soon caused a crash at Ninth Street and West Erie Avenue that caused an unmarked police car to smash into a light pole and catch fire, police said. Both officers in the car were able to escape before the flames broke out, police said.

The driver did not stop, and remains at large, police said.

Police did not say what injuries the 35-year-old man had suffered in the chase, but said that the injured officer had been treated at Temple University Hospital and released.

Police are asking anyone with information to call their tipline at 215-686-TIPS.