ORLANDO, Fla. – An Ocoee police officer and another driver were seriously injured in a crash Thursday morning while the officer was chasing another vehicle, officials said.
The wreck happened Thursday morning on Orange Blossom Trail at Holden Avenue in Orlando. OBT was closed in both directions in the area, but all lanes later reopened.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Officer Chris Bonner, 29, of Ocoee, was northbound on OBT with his cruiser's lights and sirens activated when he crashed into a Toyota Corolla, which was headed east on Holden Avenue. The Toyota, driven by a 26-year-old Orlando woman, had the green light, troopers said.
"At the time he's within his policy, within his rights to continue as the second car in that particular chase," Lt. Mike Bryant with Ocoee Police said.
Bonner and the driver of the Toyota were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the FHP said.
Ocoee police said Bonner was chasing a vehicle wanted in connection with two armed robberies in Altamonte Springs when the crash occurred. The car being chased, a 2015 dark-colored Honda reported stolen from Oviedo, got away, police said.
Police said two men in the stolen Honda robbed a man sitting in his car at Bobby G's Sports Bar on Westmonte Drive, stealing his gun, cash and other items at gunpoint.
The second robbery happened minutes later at Kiwi's Pub and Grill on State Road 436, where a woman was robbed of cash and other items while standing outside her car, according to police.
Ocoee police said Bonner was the second police cruiser to go through the intersection, but the lead car didn't have any problems.
"FHP will look into the accident to see if there was anything we could have done better. We will ultimately armchair quarterback it ourselves and look into our policies to make sure everything was done up to that point," Bryant said.
Police said the agency's chase policy is to pursue persons suspected of committing violent crimes. Since the wanted culprits stole a gun in the first robbery, and they both used weapons in the second, there was a concern that another violent crime could occur, police said.
"They were not suppose to blow through a red light, no. The bad guy will blow through a red light. We're suppose to pull up, let everyone know we're coming, and then we shoot through it," Bryant said. "It's just unfortunate that the intersection was not cleared enough to where there were police cars coming."
Police said it appears that Bonner followed agency policy, but added that the FHP investigation has not been completed.
Bryant says Ocoee police continued to chase the suspects outside of its jurisdiction because its officers were the lead cars. He adds a chase helicopter and K9 units were called out, but the chase was over before they could arrive to assist.
Bonner has been with the Ocoee Police Department for six years and is in the process of applying to become a detective, officials said. He has no prior traffic violations on his record, according to Ocoee police.
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