There was what must have been a terrifying close call at the Colfax Marathon in Denver, Colorado this weekend, when the race was interrupted by a driver in a stolen vehicle who drove onto the race route.
The vehicle almost hit a number of spectators and marathon runners, while other runners screamed warning for people to get out of the way.
“This was a very frightening call for everyone involved in the community,” said John Romero, Lakewood Police Department public information officer, when the gave a more detailed account of the incident.
“The case originally started out of Wheat Ridge that morning, Wheat Ridge police attempted to pull over a suspicious vehicle. I believe it had no plate on it. That vehicle then fled from police and that’s how it ended up in the race route in Lakewood.”
Lakewood police then received multiple calls leading them to West 20th Avenue near Pierce Street.
“People were running from it, both spectators and runners. Luckily, because we had so many police along the course route for safety, we were able to quickly find that car. That car did elude us as well,” said Romero.
Eventually the driver crashed the car in Morse Park. He then got out and attempted to flee on foot, but the Lakewood police were able to catch him and place him under arrest.
“Thankfully enough no one was hurt in this. No agents, no spectators, no runners, which is pretty miraculous actually when you think of the amount of people that were there at the time,“ Romero said.
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