GUATEMALA MAN ARRESTED AFTER PURSUIT IN BLAIRSVILLE

A Guatemalan man is currently in Indiana County Jail after engaging Blairsville police in a car chase on Sunday night.

At 8:30 p.m., officers were dispatched to South Spring Street for a report of a young woman and baby jumping out of a moving car. Witnesses described the van they jumped out of to police, and while they were being treated by Citizens Ambulance, 22-year-old Ronny Gomez Lopez returned to the scene in the van. Police attempted to make a traffic stop, but he quickly fled. The pursuit ended when Lopez crashed into a retaining wall on East Brown Street. Lopez then fled on foot for several blocks, but police eventually used a taser to subdue him. When police returned to investigate the van, they found a three-year-old child inside the vehicle.

When police spoke to the woman, she said Lopez was driving too fast and struck her when she and the baby fell out of the van because the door wasn't closed properly. The two were taken to Forbes Hospital for treatment, while the child found in the van was flown to UPMC Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and is in critical condition.

Lopez was taken to IRMC for treatment before being booked into jail on charges of endangering a child, fleeing or attempting to flee from police, simple assault, fleeing arrest on foot, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and driving under the influence.