SAN ANTONIO – Two armed robbery suspects were hospitalized after a violent car crash on San Antonio's South Side early Thursday morning.
Two other suspects involved in the robbery are sought by police after a separate crash in a stolen car.
Police said the ordeal began when the victim thought he was meeting a woman he'd met online at the Motel 6 in the 7900 block of Interstate 35 South near S. Zarzamora Street around 12:30 a.m.
Instead, police said the woman and three other suspects had set up the man. They took the keys to his PT Cruiser, and two of the suspects took off in the stolen car while two others left in a black SUV, police said.
The victim gave police a description of his car that was stolen.
SAPD officers spotted both cars on New Laredo Highway and began to follow. The suspects then split off in separate directions on the highway, police said.
Police said the SUV began to reach speeds of 80-90 mph before the man and woman inside went up a hill, and went airborne, clearing about 80 feet before crash landing.
The SUV went over railroad tracks and an embankment before coming down on its back hatch, then flipping upright, police said.
"We just see a lot of smoke and stuff on the other side, and we look and the cops (were) here, he took off around," said Willie Torres, who lives near the site where the car crashed at Whitman Avenue and Wabash Street.
"I got up, looked that way (and saw), like, 12 cop cars," said Jennifer Hanlon, who heard the crash.
Police said the man and woman were transported to University Hospital in critical but stable condition.
SAPD officials said they are facing charges for robbery and evading arrest.
Officers also found the gun they think the suspects used in the robbery inside that crashed car.
Police said the suspects in the PT cruiser crashed near S. Zarzamora and Fitch Avenue.
Officials said the driver went through a vacant lot and crashed into a fence. The two suspects fled the scene and remain at-large.
Police did not report any injuries from the second crash.