Suspect Leads Police on Wild Chase With Children in Car

Suspect Leads Police on Wild Chase With Children in Car


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Gene Kennedy ReportingPolice chase a man with a stolen truck all over the Salt Lake valley. It ended in Sugarhouse, right on someone's front lawn.

Delpha Abbot was sleeping and awakened to sirens. Her nephew peaked out the window saw a Dodge Durango sitting on their front lawn against a fence. Initially the suspect was nowhere to be found, and with a neighborhood to hide in, that was a big concern.

Suspect Leads Police on Wild Chase With Children in Car

Behind Delpha Abbott's home is a set of stairs leading to where her tenants live. Police thought maybe the wanted man went up there.

Delpha Abbott: "Just chaos. They were waking everybody up. I think they were concerned that had gotten a hostage." Reporter: "If he actually went inside your house?" "Yes."

Police were looking for Orlando Roybal. Late last night, officers say he pulled a gun on a couple men at a Holiday gas station, then later went to a parking lot near a bar off 3300 South and started breaking into cars. Witnesses saw him and when police spotted the stolen truck he was in, they say he took off. That's what Delpha Abott heard.

Suspect Leads Police on Wild Chase With Children in Car

Delpha Abbott: "From what I understand, they chased them quite a ways across town."

From South Salt Lake to I-15 to Abbott's front yard in Sugarhouse, and when police opened the stolen truck, Abbott was speechless.

Delpha Abbott: "That was heart rendering to see. They were sitting there and scared."

Suspect Leads Police on Wild Chase With Children in Car

There were three children in the truck, two boys and a girl. One of the boys, a five-year-old, is the suspect's son.

Sgt. Mikal Wersland: "They were a little frightened and shaken. I took the youngest aside and comforted him, and made sure that they stayed warm and dry."

The children were subjected to a 20-minute, high speed chase. Delpha Abbott never thought the story would end like this.

Delpha Abbott: "No, and you don't think you're gonna experience it."

Suspect Leads Police on Wild Chase With Children in Car

One of the women seen in the video is the children's mother. The kids had come from Denver to visit her. They are now safe with their parents in Colorado, and the suspect Orlando Roybal is getting charged with child abuse for having them in the stolen truck.

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