LAYTON, Utah — A Utah man stepped in to help, chasing down a hit and run suspect who literally ran from the scene after causing a three-car-crash involving children.
What would you do in an emergency situation? For one Utah man, the answer was to step in and help.
“It’s like, ‘oh no what did I just witness?’ And then it just got crazier from there,” said Kevin.
Kevin witnessed a three-car crash at the Layton Hills Mall Friday evening, the car directly in front of his car had been slammed into.
Melisa Williams was the driver of that car, “we were stopped at the stop sign down this way,” she said.
“I saw a black car flying through the parking lot and I knew he wasn’t going to stop,” Melisa said she tried to honk her horn to notify the other cars, but it was too late.
A drunk driver slammed into the side of a stopped pickup truck, the force pushed both vehicles into her car.
“It was really bad,” Williams said. “It’s so smashed you couldn’t open the front two doors.”
“It all just kind of went in slow motion and you see it all happen, the loud bangs, the crash, the airbags deploying in everybody’s cars,” Kevin said as he described what it was like to watch the crash.
Williams had three teenagers in her car, the pickup truck driver had two infants in her back seat, thankfully no one was injured.
To make matters worse, the guys who caused the crash took off.
“I asked them, ‘You guys okay?’ And they just like slowly backing up and then they took off running,” Williams said.
But Kevin wasn’t going to let them get away.
“I didn’t really think about it, I just jumped out of my car and chased after them,” he said,
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to catch up to them because they’re 50 yards ahead at that point,” Kevin said. “I’m just hoping, maybe i can get a picture of them or some video.”
He followed them into the mall, one man took off out an exit towards I-15, the other went towards the escalators. Kevin followed that man, assuming he would have the best shot at getting them on camera.
“You see him getting on the escalator pushing through people,” Kevin said as he watched the video he captured.
“Hey! Hey! You cant crash into somebody’s car and run away!” he can be heard yelling at the man in the video.
“It was crazy, it was a crazy night,” Williams said.
Leaving these Utahns a story they will never forget.
“You always wonder, what am I going to do in that situation? It’s cool that i responded that way,” said Kevin.
Police tracked down the owner of the car who pointed them in the direction of the driver. They were then able to arrest 20-year-old Daniel Tsinnijinnie for DUI, drinking alcohol underage and driving a vehicle without insurance.
