Teen who led cops on high-speed chase dies after car flips in fiery crash, SC coroner says
A Midlands teenager died after leading South Carolina law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase that ended in a crash, according to the Sumter County Coroner’s Office.
Ravon Harris, a 17-year-old Sumter resident, died Sunday from injuries suffered days earlier in the accident, Coroner Robbie Baker said.
Harris was trying to escape from members of the Sumter Police Department and Sumter County Sheriff’s Office when the single-vehicle collision happened at about 5:30 p.m. Friday, according to Baker.
The sheriff’s office said that Sumter police requested its assistance as officers pursued a 2014 Cadillac CTS following an altercation with guns at the Broad Street Red Lobster.
No injuries were reported from the incident at the restaurant. Further information about that incident was not available.
As the chase moved about 5 miles away from the Red Lobster, a passenger armed with a handgun got out of the car and ran off near the intersection of Old Pocalla Road and Manning Road, according to the sheriff’s office.
The driver of the Cadillac, later identified as Harris, then sped away from a deputy who had activated the patrol vehicle’s blue lights and was trying to make a traffic stop, the sheriff’s office said. Harris refused to stop and continued driving south on Manning Road and onto U.S. 521 South at speeds exceeding 100 mph, according to the sheriff’s office.
Near the intersection of U.S. 521 and Wood Rock Road, Harris lost control of the Cadillac and hit an embankment, causing the car to flip several times and go up in flames, the sheriff’s office said.
Emergency responders, including EMS and firefighters, were called to the scene and Harris was pulled from the car and flown by helicopter to Prisma Health Richland hospital in Columbia, according to the sheriff’s office.
Harris, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the hospital Sunday, Baker said.
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
The juvenile passenger who ran away from the Cadillac and was taken into custody by police and transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia, according to the sheriff’s office. That teen, whose name is not being made public because of his age, was not injured and no other injuries were reported.
Five pistols, and a small amount of marijuana, were recovered from the teens, and several of the guns were confirmed to have been stolen in a string of motor vehicle break-ins in the city and the county on Aug. 24, the sheriff’s office said.
Both police and the sheriff’s office are continuing to investigate the events that led up to the chase, while the coroner’s office and the South Carolina Highway Patrol are investigating the crash and death.
No other arrests have been reported.
“It is hard to imagine young people who should be enjoying some of the best days of their lives, getting involved in crime — especially crime that involves guns and running from law enforcement,” Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said in a news release. “I am grateful that the actions of the suspects did not cause injury to civilians or the police officers and our deputies. ... I also pray our young people learn this lifestyle never has a happy ending.”
