Lawrence police briefly chased a stolen vehicle near the 900 block of Iowa Street on Thursday afternoon. Three suspects were eventually arrested after they fled the scene of a single-car, noninjury accident on private property in the 1200 block of Iowa.

Sgt. Trent McKinley said police were called to the area just after 5 p.m. when employees of a bank reported suspicious activity near the car. Officers found the car to be stolen out of Jefferson County with a license plate stolen from Lawrence. The three occupants led officers on a chase through the residential area between Ninth and 15th streets. McKinley said he quickly decided to stop the chase because of the amount of traffic and potential risk for uninvolved people in the area.

A few minutes after the decision to stop the chase, a resident in the 1200 block of Iowa called police to report that a car had hit a tree on his property. After hitting the tree, the three occupants of the stolen car fled on foot. They were not injured in the crash.

Police tracked down and arrested all three of the suspects after finding one near the car and two in a nearby house.