hit-and-run

Alert Driver Spots Suspect Vehicle in Brookline Hit-and-Runs on Highway

Police were acting on a tip from an alert NBC10 Boston viewer when they stopped the suspect vehicle on I-93N in Boston

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A driver believed involved in three hit-and-run crashes in Brookline and Cambridge within an hour Monday morning was stopped on I-93 northbound in Boston Monday afternoon after another alert driver recognized the car from an NBC10 Boston report and called police.

The car was spotted on Route 3 by that viewer, who contacted our newsroom and said she saw coverage of the search for the driver on NBC10 Boston. She also called 911 to let police know the location.

NBC10 Boston's SkyRanger captured aerial video of the scene showing the sedan, which matched the description of the suspect vehicle, pulled over on the side of the I-93 northbound near the Columbia Road exit. The car was surrounded by Massachusetts State Police cruisers, and troopers were seen taking a woman out of the car.

Brookline police confirmed their suspect and the vehicle were located by Massachusetts State Police. The driver was taken to Boston Medical Center for evaluation. She was not publicly identified and no charges have been filed at this time. More information is expected Tuesday morning.

Brookline police said the driver was involved in the three crashes earlier in the day. According to police, the incidents started when a 2007 VW Jetta hit a vehicle on Memorial Drive in Cambridge around 9 a.m. and drove off. The other driver was not hurt.

Brookline Police Department
Brookline police say this car was involved in three hit-and-runs in the span of about an hour Monday morning.

The victim tried to follow the Jetta into Brookline, where the Jetta hit a pedestrian on Pleasant Street. Police said the driver reportedly honked at the pedestrian before driving into them.

Gunther Zupanc says he was trying to cross Pleasant Street and that he has no doubt the driver intended to hit him.

"She made a deliberate decision to turn the car towards me," he said. "It was not that she was just driving off or whatever, after she had stopped, she had made a turn, and then, with high speed, drove towards me."

Zupanc was discharged from the hospital Monday night.

"The car came directly towards me and hit me," he said.

Again, the driver left the scene, according to investigators. A short time later, the same car backed into another vehicle on Harvard Street near Stop & Shop after being beeped at. No one was hurt in that crash.

A car that matches the description of one involved in multiple crashes in Brookline, Massachusetts, was stopped in Boston Monday.

All of this occurred between 9 and 10 a.m. Monday, according to police.

Investigators said the car is registered to an address on Fenwood Road in Boston under a 46-year-old woman, who may have been the person driving based on the suspect description. Police went to the address, but no one answered the door and the vehicle was not there.

Brookline Police said Monday morning they were searching for the driver and the vehicle, and a welfare check was ordered. Cambridge police are also involved in the investigation.

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