Cops find guns after fleeing driver crashes into tree: police

A Joliet man led the law on a chase across the east side but was captured after he crashed into a tree, police said.

Darius Montgomery was hospitalized after he wreck shortly before 2 a..m. Thursday but was jailed upon his release from AMITA Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, according to police.

Officers attempted to pull Montgomery over near the corner of Sherman Street and Fourth Avenue but he took off, police said.

“The driver refused to stop, and a pursuit ensued,” police said in a statement release Monday. “The pursuit ended after the fleeing vehicle became disabled after striking a tree and fence.”

Montgomery tried to make a run for it but was apprehended before he made it too far, police said.

Officers then found a pair of handguns — 9 mm and a .25 caliber — in the vehicle Montgomery had just crashed, according to police.

Montgomery was taken by ambulance to St. Joe’s, police said, and transported to the Will County jail Saturday evening after he was released from the hospital. He was booked on probable cause of resisting a police officer, unlawful possession of a handgun, aggravated fleeing and possession of a firearm by a felon, records show.

Montgomery was released from jail Sunday afternoon on $30,000 bond, records show.