The Chrysler that struck an SUV in Hartford Saturday, killing the driver, was one of two stolen cars involved in a 20-mile police chase on Route 2 on April 1, police said.
The gray 2008 Chrysler 300 was left running outside the 7-Eleven in the Moodus section of East Haddam shortly after 6 a.m. that day. Someone stole it, and about 25 minutes later, a state trooper spotted it on Route 16 but was unable to stop it.
The car and another vehicle stolen from Bristol on March 31 then raced away from troopers on Route 2. The one stolen from Bristol was stopped, and its 15-year-old driver was arrested, but the Chrysler — which had left the highway and sped around Glastonbury — slipped away.
It resurfaced early Saturday afternoon, when it barreled west on Grand Street in Hartford and slammed into the driver’s side of an SUV headed south on Broad Street, which then hit a parked car. The SUV’s driver, Jose Mendoza, 44, of Hartford, died.
Police took two passengers — a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy who authorities said had an ammunition clip for a high-capacity weapon — into custody. But the driver and another passenger fled, police said.
Hartford Lt. Paul Cicero said he doesn’t know what the Chrysler was used for before the deadly crash. Sometimes, car thieves use them as getaway cars so they can commit more crimes, sometimes they sell them for quick cash. Other times they just take them on joyrides.
“There’s no rhyme or reason,” Cicero said Monday.
He said several different divisions of the Hartford Police Department are working on the case.
For years, police officials across the state have been warning about brazen car thefts by juveniles and urging residents to remove their keys from their cars at night and lock them.
They also have been urging legislators to change the law so juveniles with two or more convictions for car thefts have their cases transferred to adult court, where they would likely face stiffer penalties.
A recent high-profile stolen car case out of Hartford unfolded the day after the Moodus theft, when a group of teenagers in a stolen car crashed into the front gates of Taylor Swift’s beach side house in Westerly, R.I.
A Hartford 19-year-old was arrested.
In March, a 17-year-old from Hartford died when the stolen SUV he was in flipped in Durham.
State police are investigating the actions of a trooper who they said drove by the scene of the fatal wreck, perhaps unknowingly.
Christine Dempsey can be reached at cdempsey@courant.com.
