RPD: Stolen vehicle recovered after being involved in pursuit in which RPD cruiser was hit; thieves still at large

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A Pontiac Vibe stolen from a woman on Middlesex Road was found and recovered three hours later on Cummings Street — after being involved in a pursuit in the city in which a Rochester Police Department patrol car was hit and a sergeant injured.

According to Rochester Police, officers responded to Middlesex Road, south of Humboldt Street, for the report of a robbery just after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. A 61-year-old woman told police she was sitting in the car with the door open when a male suspect approached her door, threatened her and demanded she get out, pulling her out of the car and taking personal property from her. He and another male got in the car and sped out. They displayed no weapons, and the woman was not injured.

RPD officers say the stolen Vibe just after 4 p.m. in the area of Jay and Orchard streets and tried to do a traffic stop. The driver would not stop, leading to a pursuit. During the chase, a Rochester Police Department car heading east through the intersection of Portland Avenue and Central Park against a red light, with lights and siren on, was hit by a vehicle heading north on Portland. Police say a large SUV stopped in the intersection due to the pursuit was blocking the driver’s view. The RPD sergeant was taken to a local hospital for minor, non-life-threatening injuries; the other driver, 65, was treated and released at the scene.

Police continued pursuing the vehicle for a short while, then called off the chase around 4:15 p.m. in the area of Van Stallen and Townsend Street.

Then, just after 4;30 p.m., officers responding to a 911 call about a suspicious vehicle in the rear of a Cummings Street residence, near Clifford Avenue, found the stolen vehicle in the backyard, unoccupied. Police said they learned that the occupants were in a nearby home; they surrounded it to try to make contact with the people inside but could not. The vehicle was towed out of the backyard and recovered.

Police ask anyone with information about the original robbery or the pursuit to call 911.