HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Two people died in a crash while leading officers on a chase in Holland early Sunday, police say.
Around 2:24 a.m., an officer with the Holland Department of Public Safety was called to the Speedway gas station on Washington Avenue at 33rd Street for a report of a fight involving “several” people, police said.
As the officer arrived, he saw a vehicle leaving the gas station parking lot headed west on 33rd Street with no headlights on “at a high rate of speed,” according to a release from HDPS. Multiple gunshots were heard at the same time, which the officer believed were coming from the vehicle.
The officer followed the vehicle onto Pioneer Avenue and then onto 32nd Street, where it continued west. Police said it was going at a “high rate of speed” and its headlights were off.
As the vehicle continued west of the city limits, the driver lost control on the curve on 32nd Street near the South Shore Drive curve, police said. The car hit a tree. The driver and passenger were killed, police said. Their names were not released by police.
No victims were found in the area where the shots were heard and it’s not clear what the suspects were shooting at, police said.
A neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told News 8 they were woken up by what they believed to be five gunshots.
“I was just like, did that really just happen?” the neighbor said. “Was that gunshots? Sure enough, by the time we woke up in the morning, our streets was flooded with cops.”
The neighbor, who described the neighborhood as a “tight-knit” and “friendly space,” said the incident was frightening and scary. They had never seen anything like this happen there.
“It’s a little eye-opening honestly,” they said.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the crash along with Holland detectives.
Anyone with information was asked to call HDPS at 616.355.1150, email policetips@cityofholland.com or call Silent Observer at 1.877.887.4536.