Correction: The person named as a suspect in this story as originally published is not a suspect in this crime, Riverhead Police Lt. Sean Egan said this morning. The information provided earlier by police was in error, he said.
Riverhead Police are looking for a man who fled from police during a traffic stop at the Riverside circle last night, then crashed the vehicle on Old Quogue Road and escaped on foot.
Police the subject was operating a 2014 Ford Fusion when they stopped him at the Route 24 traffic circle just before 8 p.m. The vehicle had been reported stolen, according to police.
While being interviewed, the suspect put the vehicle into gear. The officer reached into the vehicle to try to remove the keys from the ignition, but the man took off, heading south on Route 24, according to the report.
The vehicle was located a short time later on the corner of Brown Street and Old Quogue Road, where it had crashed into a fence, police said. The operator had fled the area on foot, police said.
A N.Y. State Police K9 unit and Suffolk County Police aviation assisted in the attempt to locate the suspect, without success.
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