Five photographers turned their assignment schedules upside down to respond on a two-state police chase involving a bank robbery suspect and a number of area police departments. The chase started near Lambert St. Louis International Airport, speeding through Interstate 70 onto Interstate 64, past Fairview Heights, turning around near O’Fallon and ending in a stop just before the Martin Luther King Bridge on the Illinois side. The suspect was taken into custody after a short foot chase.

A suspect, in the GMC (center), eludes police on westbound I-64 in Washington Park. Photograph by Erik Lunsford

The suspect is taken into custody in East St. Louis. Photograph by Anthony Soufflé

Sid Hastings, Assistant Director of Photography at the Post-Dispatch, edited the pictures as photographers arrived in the newsroom with their photographs. “You look for something in focus, correctly exposed, and try to find a moment that offers at least a little more insight of the experience. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on whether someone was blocked, if they were arrested, those kind of things. People did a good job coordinating things. On my end, I could tell there was some good stuff. And some of it is just plain luck.”

Anthony Soufflé, a staff photographer, was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. “It was crazy. I’m sitting here [at the bridge] and I here on the radio “they’re coming, they’re coming, they’re coming,” and then all of a sudden I start to see police lights and the [suspect”] car is obviously moving toward a ditch area, and I have my camera out. He came very close to my car as he passed. He jumped out as I jumped over a railing to photograph him being taken into custody by police.”

The east side of the Martin Luther King Bridge following the stop. Photograph by David Carson