St. Joseph County Police searching for vehicle involved in hit and run of motorcyclists

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. - The St. Joseph County Police Department is investigating after two motorcyclists reported being hit by the same vehicle on Mayflower Road.

On Sunday, officers were called to Mayflower Road for an injury incident involving a motorcyclist.

They arrived to the area and noticed several motorcycles and vehicles stopped at Mayflower, north of Cloyd Street. Several people were surrounding a man sitting in the grass.

The man sitting in the grass told officers he was hit by a vehicle while riding his motorcycle.

The victim had noticeable lacerations on his hands, chin, stomach, and was bleeding heavily from his left foot, officers said.

The victim said a gold Trailblazer hit his motorcycle on purpose, causing him to run off the road.

Just before the incident, the victim and his friends were stopped at the intersection of Mayflower and Sample Street on their motorcycles.

When the light turned green, the suspect vehicle was in front of them and turned south onto Mayflower just before the victim and his friends did.

On Mayflower, just north of the U.S. 20 Bypass, the victim and his friends were in the left lane and the vehicle was in the right lane to get onto the Bypass.

The vehicle didn't get on the Bypass and instead came up behind the motorcyclists fast and purposely swerved his vehicle toward the victim, hitting him, the victim said.

A motorcyclist at the front of the group said the victim was at the back of the group when he was hit by the vehicle.

The motorcyclist said the vehicle swerved at the group and then drove toward the victim on purpose before going after another motorcyclist on Mayflower.

A third motorcyclist corroborated the events but said he doesn't believe the vehicle purposely hit the victim, reports said. He said he thought he saw the driver of the vehicle on his cell phone at the time.

He described the vehicle as being gold, in good condition, and with an Indiana license plate.

The driver appeared to be a white male in his 20s and was wearing a yellow shirt, he said.

Another officer was also called to Mayflower while other officers responded to the first victim near Cloyd Street.

According to officers at the second scene, they arrived to find a male lying on the ground while fire units gave him medical attention.

Near the second victim was a damaged blue motorcycle.

A witness at the scene told officers he was driving north on Sumption Trail and coming around a curve when he saw a gold or tan in color Trailblazer cross the double centerline and nearly hit his own vehicle head-on.

The witness stopped his vehicle to avoid a crash as the suspect vehicle continued south on Sumption.

The witness said he then noticed there was a motorcycle and a male involved in a crash.

He described the driver of the suspect vehicle as a young male who was either white or Hispanic.

A second witness told officers she was driving south on Mayflower, from Sample, when she saw a tan Trailblazer start to get onto the Bypass exit heading west.

At one point, the Trailblazer allegedly turned east while on the ramp in order to get back onto Mayflower, nearly hitting other vehicles, the witness said.

The Trailblazer then headed south on Mayflower, past the Bypass, and crossed the train tracks.

The witness saw the Trailblazer cross into oncoming traffic, passing a white Honda CRV.

After passing the CRV, the witness saw the Trailblazer run a group of motorcyclists off the road and then continue south without stopping.

This is an ongoing investigation.