A car chased by South Tucson police Monday afternoon flipped over and crashed into a house, injuring two people in the vehicle, authorities said.
Authorities said the crash stemmed from a road-rage incident involving those in the car and a second vehicle just after 4 p.m.
Two men in the white 2006 Dodge Magnum that crashed were seriously injured and had to be pulled to safety by Tucson fire personnel, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
The men were taken to a hospital and their names were not released. Their conditions were not known Monday night.
No one was in the house, at South Euclid Avenue and East 38th Street, when the car crashed into it, said Bertha Benitez, who owns the home.
She was out with her husband and daughter when the crash happened.
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"It was the only house on the block with nobody in it," said Benitez, 52. "I was shocked. I didn't expect to see my house like this when I came home. But, it's just a house, and it can be replaced."
Benitez said she's more concerned about the two men in the car. "When you see how bad the car was smashed up, that's what you think of first," she said.
The incident started with road rage a little after 4 p.m. in South Tucson, Pacheco said.
The two people in the Dodge followed the second car and eventually the two vehicles stopped in the 500 block of East 27th Street, he said.
At that point, one person in the first car apparently pointed a shotgun, Pacheco said.
The second car took off, and those inside called 911. South Tucson police soon spotted the Dodge, he said.
South Tucson police contacted Tucson police to tell them that their officers were chasing the Dodge and had crossed into Tucson, Pacheco said.
The pursuit ended when the Dodge flipped over and struck the front of a house on the southeast corner of Euclid and 38th, he said, but not before it crashed through a chain-link fence on the northeast corner of the intersection.
Tucson police found a gun in the Dodge, Pacheco said.
Witnesses and neighbors said the car was being chased by South Tucson police as it flipped over into the house, but a press release from South Tucson police said the officer lost the car near Euclid and East 33rd Street and then found it wrecked at the home.
Witnesses said they didn't hear any police sirens before the crash. South Tucson police said the officer had turned off his sirens after losing the car in the area.
Ernesto Lara was about to take his horse down the street for a walk when crash occurred.
Lara said he didn't see the Dodge or the South Tucson police car until his horse pulled back into the yard.
If the horse hadn't pulled back, Lara said, the speeding car might have taken him along with his fence into his neighbor's home.
Sal Dicochea, 53, said he was walking north on Euclid when the wreck happened in front of him.
"Police used no sirens for the chase, and this is a neighborhood with a lot of kids in it," Dicochea said. "They should have put the sirens on or something — but they didn't."
"I was shocked. I didn't expect to see my house like this when I came home. But, it's just a house, and it can be replaced."
Bertha Benitez, homeowner
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