The crash, cracking of metal and shattering of glass at first sounded like a tornado had hit their home.
After coming downstairs, Anne Judd realized what had happened: Her Center Grove area home had been hit by a vehicle. Then she looked outside and saw a sheriff’s deputy in her front yard, pointing a gun at a man trapped in the vehicle that had crashed into her house.
Their neighborhood, Windsong, and others nearby were lit up with police vehicles after a chase that began in Bargersville. Two men had gotten away after the vehicle crashed, and police were escorting traffic on nearby Smith Valley Road for fear the men would try to steal someone’s vehicle to get away, Bargersville Assistant Police Chief Todd Bertram said.
Anne Judd said her family has lived in the home for about 30 years in the quiet neighborhood near Sugar Grove Elementary School.
“Nothing spectacular ever happens around here,” she said. “This is just something totally new.”
At 1:30 a.m. Thursday, a Bargersville police officer tried to stop a green Chevy Trailblazer for driving 75 mph in a 55 mph zone on State Road 37, near Travis Road. The vehicle slowed down slightly but then sped off, Bertram said.
The chase went north on State Road 37 and then turned east onto Smith Valley Road, where speeds reached more than 100 mph, according to a police report from the Bargersville Police Department.
The headlights on the vehicle were turned off, and the chase then turned onto Windmill Trail, a residential street across from Sugar Grove Elementary School. The vehicle hit mailboxes, a telephone box and a tree before crashing into the garage door of the home in the 500 block of South Windmill Trail.
Homeowners Abe and Anne Judd were home when the sport utility vehicle hit their garage door, damaging a wall, the door and a few cabinets in the garage. Bertram estimates about $10,000 damage was done to the home, he said. A structural engineer will stop by the house to make sure no damage was done to the foundation, Anne Judd said.
The damage to the home would have been worse if it hadn’t been for a large tree in the front yard. The vehicle struck and uprooted the 12- to 15-foot-tall tree before hitting the garage.
Hours later, the Judds had put up plywood to cover the garage door, removed the debris from vehicle and hauled off the uprooted tree.
After the vehicle crashed into the home, police said, a man later identified as Quincy Harris, 20, got out of the driver’s side and ran away. A minor who was riding in the vehicle crawled out through the sun roof and also ran away. A third man, Tyron Williams Jr., 20, was stuck in the back seat of the SUV.
No one was injured during the crash.
Residents who live on or near Windmill Trail walked outside to see what the commotion was, and police told them to get back inside since two men were on the loose. Police officers checked the backyards of homes in the area, Anne Judd said.
The minor was tracked down in the neighborhood by a police dog, Bertram said. He was taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital to get medical treatment for a dog bite.
Harris got away from the neighborhood, and police said he stole another vehicle from a home on Berry Road. Police had asked gas stations nearby to be on the look out for the men and gave their description. Harris showed up at a gas station at Smith Valley Road and State Road 135 at 4:50 a.m., and a worker at the gas station notified police that a man matching the description was at the store, wearing muddy clothes, according to the police report.
Officers searched the vehicle that crashed into the home and found marijuana and prescription drugs in a backpack on the floor. They also found a checkbook belonging to a Terre Haute resident. The prescription drugs also belonged to the Terre Haute resident. The resident had reported the items stolen from his vehicle on Aug. 7, according to the report.
All three were arrested. The juvenile, whom police did not identify, was taken to the Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center.
Harris, 1231 N. Sharon St., Indianapolis, was arrested on charges of fleeing with a vehicle, resisting an officer, auto theft, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle, possession of marijuana and reckless driving. Harris was taken to the Johnson County jail, where he was being held on $7,600 bond.
Williams, 1104 N. Belmont Ave., Indianapolis, was arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. He was being held on $1,200 bond.
