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Garland police pursuit ends with fatal crash for 2nd time in as many weeks

A driver that drove away from police during a traffic stop died after crashing into another vehicle and pole, police say.

A Dallas man died Wednesday after striking another vehicle then colliding with a pole in Richardson following a police pursuit.

Just after 10 p.m., Garland officers stopped a Dodge Charger in the 3800 block of W. Walnut Street, according to a Garland police department news release.

“The officers made contact with the occupants of the vehicle but the driver took off,” the release said.

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Police said they pursued the vehicle for “several minutes” but eventually “slowed and briefly lost sight” of the car due to its high speed.

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The driver, 25-year-old Luis Mauricio Perez Ortiz, continued driving until he struck a pickup, then a pole at the intersection of S. Greenville Avenue and Centennial Boulevard in Richardson, the release said. Ortiz was taken to a hospital where he died, Richardson police said.

Other occupants in Ortiz’s vehicle and the driver of the pickup had minor injuries.

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According to police, the time from the traffic stop to the crash was about 3 minutes. Officers later found narcotics and a “large amount” of money in Ortiz’s vehicle.

This is at least the second time in two weeks Garland police have been involved in a pursuit that turned deadly in a different jurisdiction. The previous time was a chase on Nov. 20 from Garland to Dallas that resulted in a 16-year-old passenger’s death. Two other occupants in that car were arrested.

That crash happened less than a week after a Grand Prairie officer died after rolling his patrol car during a vehicle pursuit. The driver that led police on that pursuit was arrested days later.

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