Police Chase Leaves Woman Dead In Chicago, Suspect Charged With Murder

A Chicago man has been charged with murder after a police squad car, on a pursuit to nab him down, crashed into another vehicle killing a woman.

According to the Chicago police, during the May 3 incident, the deputies identified a dark-colored Jeep near 115th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue that was wanted for its involvement in several crimes in the nearby suburbs.

Illinois State Police later confirmed that the Jeep was stolen and was wanted in connection with a drive-by shooting incident near 104th and State streets.

When the officers tried to stop the vehicle in the 9400-block of South Union Avenue, the driver, later identified as 22-year-old Marcel Oliver, sped away from the scene and led the police on a chase into Irving Park on the Northwest Side.

At one point during the chase, Oliver crashed the Jeep near a gas station between Irving Park Road and Keystone Avenue. According to the police, he then stole an idling 2016 Nissan SUV parked at the gas station and continued speeding east on Irving Park Road with police in pursuit.

During the pursuit, a squad car slammed into a Ford Explorer traveling north on Ashland Avenue. Guadalupe Francisco-Martinez, 37, driving the Ford suffered life-threatening injuries during the crash. She was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.

The Cook County medical examiner's office conducted an autopsy and confirmed that Francisco-Martinez succumbed to her injuries. Her death was ruled an accident.

According to her family, Francisco-Martinez was driving back home after her first day at a new job.

"I thought someone stole her phone with everything going on," her daughter Jaritzi Escobar told local media. "My siblings were waiting for her looking out the window for 30 minutes straight she never got home. That lady was my best friend," she said.

The squad car hit the Ford and spun out and hit a Hummer stopped at the red light. The driver and the two passengers in the Hummer were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. They were reported to have suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Two officers who were injured in the crash were also rushed to the hospital. They too were reported to be in stable condition.

After a while, Oliver changed course and drove back to the South Side before crashing into a pole in Bridgeport. He was taken into custody in the 800 block of West Pershing Road when he tried fleeing the scene on foot. He was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious condition.

Oliver who hails from Fernwood, Chicago, is charged with one felony count each of first-degree murder, vehicular hijacking, possessing a stolen vehicle and failure to report an accident causing injury. He also faces three felony counts of aggravated fleeing causing injury. A $1 million bond is set on him.