Pregnant Philly teen, baby, 3 others dead after police chase ends in fiery crash

A pregnant teenager, her baby and three others were killed in Delaware County, Pa. when their car crashed as they fled police who suspected them of shoplifting, authorities said Thursday.

Driver Isaiah Miller, 20, and passengers Ikeam Rogers, 20, and Kalyn Billups, 21, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Tyjana Motley, 17, was pregnant and was rushed to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where medical personnel delivered her baby by emergency C-section, but neither survived.

Three other passengers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, one of them a 16-year-old girl, Pennsylvania State Police in Delaware County said.

The tragedy unfolded when troopers patrolling the Brinton Lake Shopping Center in Concord Township, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia, became suspicious of a red Ford Taurus sedan lurking at a stop sign near the stores. Three or four people emerged, one of whom was suspected of previous thefts from the same shopping center, troopers said.

Approached by a trooper in an unmarked car, they jumped back into the Taurus and drove out of the parking lot, police said, noting the vehicle’s “tinted front windshield, expired inspection stickers, and a Delaware temporary paper registration obscured by a tinted license plate cover.”

The Taurus pulled up to an intersection, and cops flagged it down for a traffic stop. At first the driver complied but then shot off “at a high rate of speed,” the police statement said. Officers took off after them.

Over just five minutes, the Taurus rocketed along for seven miles as it blasted past the speed limit, veered into oncoming traffic lanes and zig-zagged into the righthand shoulder to pass vehicles in its way. At one point, it was clocked going 110 mph, according to local NBC affiliate WCAU.

It was during one such attempt to pass in the shoulder that the car went out of control, cops said. It scooted across all traffic lanes, slammed into a concrete bridge abutment along the opposite shoulder and then burst into flames as a fire started in the engine block.

The crash ejected three people from the car, police told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Troopers on scene attempted to remove passengers from the vehicle, while extinguishing the fire,” the troopers said. “EMS was immediately summoned.”

Surveillance cameras and witnesses caught the fireball and billowing smoke.

The involved troopers, who were not identified, are on administrative leave during the investigation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The investigation is ongoing.