By Staff
NILES – A 25-year-old Mishawaka, Ind., man is in custody with no bond after stealing $24.51 in gas and then fleeing the scene, causing a hit and run accident that injured a 78-year-old Niles woman on Thursday.
The suspect's 2-year-old daughter was a passenger in the back seat of the vehicle throughout the incident, according to a press release from the Michigan State Police Niles Post 53.
Shortly after 2 p.m., a trooper investigating an unrelated vehicle accident in the Citgo Gas Station parking lot was alerted by an employee of a red vehicle fleeing the station allegedly without paying for fuel. The trooper, shown the direction of the fleeing vehicle, pursued and came upon an injury accident at the corner of South Third Street and Fulkerson Road allegedly caused by the suspect. A witness to the crash reportedly followed the suspect at a high rate of speed until other converging state police units could stop the vehicle.