PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania man who led police on a chase that ended with a fiery crash that killed three people in another car was likely driving more than 100 mph and had a suspended license, police said in a criminal complaint filed Friday.
Demetrius Coleman, 22, of Pittsburgh, is charged with criminal homicide, vehicular homicide, and aggravated assault with a vehicle among other charges in the Thanksgiving afternoon crash on a busy highway about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. He remained in UPMC Mercy hospital in police custody Friday and doesn't have an attorney listed in court records.
Coleman was pulled over by East McKeesport police about 2:30 p.m. Thursday for making an illegal turn, then sped away when officers learned he was wanted for violating his probation for a felony charge of possessing with intent to deliver drugs, the complaint said. Specifics on the drug charge weren't immediately available Friday because it was a court holiday.
Two adults and a toddler in the car Coleman hit at the intersection of U.S. Route 30 and state Route 48 were killed when it burst into flames. The crash scene, in North Versailles, was about 2 miles away from the initial traffic stop.
Coleman sped away from the convenience store parking lot where he was pulled over once officers turned up the drug warrant while checking his identification, the complaint said.
Online court records show Coleman was on probation for a 2012 drug possession case when he was charged with drug possession with intent to deliver in March. He was sentenced to jail, but then paroled and had his probation on the former case extended.
Accident reconstruction experts and other investigators on Friday were still piecing together the crash in which a second vehicle was also struck by Coleman's. Three women in that SUV were injured, but survived, police said. A female passenger in Coleman's vehicle broke her wrist, but was expected to survive.