FRANKLIN, Ind. — A wild police pursuit involving a U-Haul truck ended in a crash and foot chase in Franklin on Saturday afternoon.
Franklin Police said their officers were notified by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) to be on the lookout for a U-Haul that had been used in a robbery of a Target store at Emerson Avenue and Southport Road.
An officer located the truck in a gas station parking lot and stopped the vehicle, but the driver fled.
The pursuit went on to I-65, and Franklin Police said the U-Haul made several U-turns before exiting on to King Street. Investigators said the driver drove the wrong way on several surface streets.
According to a police report, the pursuit went through the back of Northwood Elementary School, where the driver went through a fence and drove through the school’s playground.
The chase then went south on US 31, where the truck hit two cars and ran another off the roadway before hitting several more cars and getting stuck at the Jefferson Street intersection.
Police said the suspect, Troy Bradford Jr., bailed out of the truck, and video shows him unsuccessfully trying to get into another car.
Cell phone video shot by a bystander shows Bradford Jr. then run behind a CVS pharmacy with officers following behind him.
According to a police report, a state trooper deployed their taser while taking Bradford Jr. into custody. Police say he had used a gun in the robbery at Target but investigators say it turned out to be an airsoft pistol.
He was checked out at the hospital and then was booked into the Johnson County Jail on preliminary charges of attempted robbery, leaving the scene of an accident, resisting law enforcement and criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.
Police say Bradford Jr. had used a gun in the robbery at Target but investigators say it turned out to be an airsoft pistol.
Video of the incident has gone viral online and racked up thousands of views.
Franklin Police Chief Kirby Cochran said no officers or citizens were injured in the pursuit.
You can watch the full video of the incident below below: