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SALT LAKE CITY — A police pursuit ended in three arrests after a fleeing car crashed into three other vehicles downtown Monday night, authorities said.
Three men were arrested around 9 p.m. at 300 West and South Temple moments after they rammed into three other vehicles, finally disabling their own vehicle, West Valley City Police Lt. Robert Hamilton said.
Police used a Taser to subdue one of the men, according to Hamilton. Another one of them was bitten by a police K-9, he said.
Investigators believe the men, whose names were not immediately released, are responsible for at least five robberies along the Wasatch Front since Saturday.
One of those incidents included a robbery of a CVS Pharmacy in Salt Lake County where one of the men fired a shot toward the clerk, Hamilton said. The exact address of that pharmacy was not immediately clear.
Police began conducting surveillance Monday evening and an officer spotted three men matching the description of the suspects pull into an apartment complex parking lot at 1300 South State Street, Hamilton said. The vehicle fled quickly afterward, leading to a low-speed chase between 45 and 50 mph, he said.
The third crash marked the end of the pursuit just north the Vivint Arena, next to the Triad Center — the home of the Deseret News and KSL. Salt Lake police, Utah Transit Authority officers and U.S. marshals assisted in the apprehension of the three men and in securing the scene, according to Hamilton.
Two of the arrested were identified as Isaiah Jones and Tristan Walker.
Nobody was injured in the three vehicles that were hit, including a minivan with six elderly occupants.
WATCH: With guns drawn, police pull robbery suspects out of a car in front of #KSL after they ram 3 other vehicles. pic.twitter.com/nyXejeZKN8
— Shara Park (@KSLSharaPark) September 13, 2016
Hamilton said others besides the three men are also believed to be responsible for the robberies. Those people are also in custody, he said.
Then Tuesday morning, police searched two rooms at a motel at 600 South and 200 West, and detained seven people. They believe several of them are connected to the string of armed robberies.
The lieutenant said a downtown pursuit "is something we definitely don’t want to do," but added that arresting the men was a high priority.
"The level of violence these criminals were displaying (was only) increasing," Hamilton said.
He said police will look into pursuing attempted murder charges in connection with the shot fired during the CVS Pharmacy robbery. Contributing: Shara Park
