INDIANAPOLIS — A police chase Monday that ended with a deadly crash that killed a 64-year-old man started after police misidentified a suspect, according to a probable cause affidavit filed against the man police were pursuing.
According to court documents, police were looking for a man suspected in an Oct. 30 shooting. Police say they identified a man who matched the description of their suspect and saw him leaving a home on Teacup Way and get into a vehicle and drive away.
READ | Man killed in crash following police pursuit
Detectives observed that driver — later identified as Marcel Carter, 24 — drive off at a high rate of speed onto East 62nd Street and then change lanes without signaling, according to court documents. A short time later an officer in a marked vehicle attempted a traffic stop on the suspect who eventually stopped, but when the officer walked to the driver's side window and ordered the man inside to put his hands on the steering wheel he sped off and fled the scene. Officers then gave chase.
After a failed PIT maneuver by police and a chase that spanned approximately 9 miles and reached speeds of 90 miles per hour, police lost the suspect in the area of Pendleton Pike near Fortville.
The chase went into Hancock County and then back into Marion County where the suspect was involved in a multi-vehicle crash near Newport Drive and Pendleton Pike.
As a result of that accident, Charles Alexander, 64, was killed. A passenger in Alexander's vehicle sustained serious but non-life threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital. The driver of a third vehicle involved also received minor injuries from the crash and was treated and released at the scene.
Carter has been charged with resisting law enforcement and reckless driving in Hancock County. In Marion County, he's facing multiple preliminary charges including reckless homicide and resisting law enforcement.
The case remains under investigation.
