Two high school students died in West Baton Rouge Parish and a third person is in the ICU after a pursuit that started in Baton Rouge on New Year’s Eve.
It started around 12:30pm after Tyquel Zanders allegedly broke into a home on Blackwell Dr. in Baton Rouge and then allegedly stole a car. Zanders is said to be the victims’ son and one of them followed him after he allegedly stole the car.
It’s how officers were able to find Zanders, 24, on River Rd. in front of the River Center in Baton Rouge.
BRPD officers started pursuing the vehicle, who was doing 80mph on Gov. St. and 110mph on I-10. Zanders then went into West Baton Rouge Parish and into Iberville Parish on La 1 southbound.
That’s when Brusly and Addis Police joined in the pursuit but the suspect then turned around on La 1 to go back northbound. That’s when sources say an Addis officer was involved in a wreck with a civilian’s vehicle.
The vehicle had turned into La 1 from W. St. Francis St. Maggie Dunn and Caroline Gill, both students at Brusly High School, died in that crash with a third person, the backseat passenger, injured and taken to a hospital.
(*UWK is choosing to blur the image of the involved vehicle)
Meanwhile, Zanders continued northbound back over I-10 into Baton Rouge on the interstate at Dalrymple.
After his car stalled on I-10, Zanders was arrested in the middle of I-10 and transported to the EBR Parish prison. He is facing several charges in EBR including theft of a motor vehicle, home invasion, aggravated flight from an officer and bench warrants. Plus, he’s facing two counts of manslaughter in WBR as well as aggravated flight. Additional charges could be pending in WBR.
Multiple agencies were involved. No further details have been released at this time.
Unbelievable that they insisted on chasing this car when they knew who the car belonged to they knew it was a family member and they knew who the driver was. This is gross negligence and cowboy tactics that have to stop. Many states have outlawed high speed chases in circumstances like this where the cops simply want to find an excuse to drive like a nascar driver.
hang him at the courthouse as an example