Stolen Plate Stop Ends With Suspect Struck on I-25 in Castle Rock

A suspect fleeing Castle Rock police on foot was struck by a passing vehicle on northbound Interstate 25 near Plum Creek Parkway Sunday evening, closing a major stretch of the freeway for nearly 90 minutes and leaving one person with life-threatening injuries after a stolen-plate traffic stop unraveled into a foot chase across one of the region's busiest corridors.

Castle Rock Police Department officers located the vehicle around 6:45 p.m. April 5 after receiving a report it was displaying a stolen license plate. The driver refused to pull over and turned instead into a dead-end residential neighborhood. Rather than pursue the vehicle directly, officers held back and deployed stop sticks at the neighborhood's exit point, deflating the tires. Even with flattened tires, the vehicle continued rolling until it came to a stop.

Two occupants jumped out and ran, both crossing into northbound I-25 traffic. One was struck by a passing car and transported by ambulance to a hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries. The second suspect fled into the surrounding area before a Castle Rock police drone located the individual, who was then taken into custody without further incident. Castle Rock Fire Department units also responded to assist at the scene.

Northbound I-25 remained closed at Plum Creek Parkway while officers investigated, not reopening until just before 8:30 p.m. Police later confirmed both individuals who fled the vehicle had outstanding felony warrants. No identities have been publicly released, and formal criminal charges had not been announced as of the latest reports.

The sequence put the limits of non-pursuit tactics in sharp focus. Officers chose to wait for the vehicle to exit the dead-end street rather than chase it, a decision consistent with policies designed to reduce high-speed pursuit risks. But once suspects ran across a freeway moving at highway speed, the danger to passing motorists became immediate and unavoidable, and the closure of northbound I-25 at Plum Creek Parkway sent ripples through Sunday evening traffic across the southern Denver metro.

Castle Rock police said the drone deployment, which produced the second arrest without escalation, will likely factor into future after-action reviews of how the department handles high-risk vehicle stops near freeway access points and dead-end residential streets.