This browser does not support the Video element.
This browser does not support the Video element.
MELBOURNE, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - An early morning crime spree ended with a police chase on Thursday in Melbourne. An officer was nearly run over and a suspect was shot right in front of a nursing home.
Melbourne Police said that it all started with a break-in at a Dollar General store in Palm Bay. A short time later, the suspects pulled off three smash-and-grabs in a west Melbourne shopping plaza.
The suspects also hit the BP Station about a mile away, police said.
Investigators eventually found the suspects dressed in all black, wearing ski masks and hoodies behind an abandoned business off of Eau Gallie Boulevard. They took off at the site of flashing police lights, hitting a patrol car while trying to get away, police said.
Officers used stop sticks to slow the suspects down. They then pulled into a nursing home parking lot. One of the officers ordered the drivers to stop, but they did not and continued in his direction. The officer fired at least one shot, striking the suspect sitting in the front passenger seat.
Police rushed the injured suspect to the hospital and arrested the four other young men in the car.