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PHOENIX, AZ - Nearly two dozen suspected undocumented immigrants who ran from a car chase that ended in a violent rollover were arrested after hiding in a south Phoenix neighborhood Monday morning.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said their officers became suspicious after noticing a white van that appeared to be weighed down on Interstate 10 near Elliot.
The van travelled from the East Valley to the West Valley, and turned south onto 35th Avenue around 7 a.m.
Click here to the right to see RAW VIDEO of the crashDPS units put up a roadblock near 49th Avenue and Van Buren, but authorities said the suspect vehicle nearly hit two DPS units and made an escape onto Van Buren.
The pursuit continued west on Van Buren and then south onto 67th Avenue.
The vehicle entered a construction zone, which was closed off to traffic, and reportedly nearly hit two construction workers and took out a set of barricades.
The van then moved onto the wrong side of the road along Southern Avenue, passing several school buses and at least one school zone at a high rate of speed.
Several minutes later, the van collided with a blue passenger car.
"The car just hit me suddenly," says Scray Multu. He was driving his father, who was sitting in the passenger seat, to an appointment. "There was blood coming from my Dad's mouth."
The van then flipped over at 27th and Southern avenues.
"It was like a T.V. show," says Johnny Monroy, who lives in a neighborhood directly across the street where the flipped van came to a resting stop.
Monroy told us he could see a couple dozen people running from the van, across the street, and climbing over cinder brick walls to hide in his neighborhood.
DPS officials confirmed several individuals jumped out of the vehicle and began running into the nearby neighborhood.
Air15 video showed those suspects climbing out the side of the van and running from police in all directions.
The driver of the blue car involved in the collision was transported to a local hospital for complaints of chest pain, according to officials.
By 8:45 a.m., DPS officials said all 21 suspects had been arrested.
DPS spokesman Harold A. Sanders said, "The driver of the van along with one other occupant are being held as suspects related to the human smuggling and other criminal violations. The other 19 occupants are being interviewed and if there is no connection with human smuggling they will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for disposition."
Nearby Ed Pastor Elementary School was returned to normal scheduling from lockdown.
It's unclear if any of the suspects were injured in the wreck.
