A Buffalo teenager driving a stolen car has been killed in a three-vehicle collision, authorities said this week.
The 14-year-old was going more than 80 miles per hour when he ran a red light at the intersection of Elmwood Ave. and Amherst St. in Buffalo late on Sunday, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said at a news conference Tuesday.
The young driver, who was operating a stolen 2017 Hyundai Elantra, was driving south on Elmwood Ave. when he crashed into two other vehicles. He was taken to Erie County Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
On Wednesday, authorities identified the driver as Jusias Pearsall, a student at Southside Elementary School, the Buffalo News reported.
The deadly incident is not being investigated as a police pursuit, Gramaglia told reporters.
“Our police vehicle was attempting to make a traffic stop and attempting to stop an aggressive driver but still wasn’t in a position to be on top of the vehicle,” he said.
Authorities said license plate readers from different parts of the city captured the Elantra with other occupants in it — including a person “hanging out of the passenger side sitting on the door and hanging on the roof” — earlier on Sunday.
However, surveillance video showed there was no one else in the car at the time of the crash. Police are now working to determine who else had been in the vehicle with Pearsall.
