A day after police said a speeding a dirt bike operator struck a aunt and her 6-year-old niece while the pair crossed busy 69th Street in Upper Darby, police announced a slew of charges against the suspected biker who remained in custody on $1 million bail.
Investigators said a police car was possibly chasing the dirt bike from the direction of Philadelphia around 1:30 p.m. when the biker struck the pedestrians in a crosswalk. Both were thrown into the air, witnesses said.
"The little girl was still. She was wasn’t moving at all," witness Paris Marshall said. "The [woman] was … trying to get to the child to see if she was OK."
The grandmother and child were taken to local hospitals where doctors listed the 6-year-old in serious condition, Upper Darby Police said.
The suspect fled but crashed into a car. He hopped off his bike and carjacked a man at knife point. He then sped off toward Philadelphia before abandoning the stolen car on the 64000 block of Market Street, police said.
Officers later caught up to Caliph Douglass, 32, limping in some nearby woods, police said. He had suffered a collapsed lung and some spinal injuries.
Douglass was arraigned from his hospital bed Sunday morning on vehicular aggravated assault, auto theft, reckless endangerment, causing an accident and related charges. Court records listed no attorney who could comment on Douglass' behalf as he is held on $1 million bail.
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Editor's Note: Police initially described the woman hurt as a grandmother but later revealed that she is actually the 6-year-old girl's aunt.
