Driver Switches Cars, Tries to Hide in Dallas Day Care During Chase

Two people are in custody Thursday afternoon after one of them led police on a chase and switched cars before running into a day care carrying a car seat in an apparent last-ditch effort to escape officers.

Dallas Police confirmed to NBC 5 Thursday afternoon they were following a blue Dodge Charger that had been reported stolen out of Midlothian. Dallas Police picked up the chase after deputies with the Rockwall County Sheriff's Office pursued the driver into Dallas County after he fled a traffic stop with Rockwall Police near the TA Travel Center at Goliad and Interstate 30.

During the leg of the pursuit in Dallas County, the driver could be seen speeding through neighborhoods, city streets and along interstates.

At one point during the chase, the driver stopped the Charger and a white Jeep SUV that had been following the sedan during the chase pulled up alongside and stopped.

The driver of the Charger got out of the vehicle, pulled out a car seat and put it in the SUV. The driver then got in the passenger side of the SUV and it sped away as a deputy with the Dallas County Sheriff's Office pulled up.

The driver of the SUV then continued to try to elude police, speeding through city streets, ignoring stop signs and driving through a wooden residential fence after nearly clipping a house on Lake Hollow Drive.

The white SUV stopped in front of Lakewest Head Start Center on Goldman Street, near Hampton and Singleton, and the passenger got out of the vehicle and ran inside carrying the car seat with the baby in it. Moments later, the driver of the white SUV also ran inside the day care.

Two men, identified Thursday night as Marvin Guevara and Andy Guevara, were taken into custody and booked into the Dallas County Jail. The Dallas County Sheriff's Department has not yet released the charges they face or whether they have retained attorneys.

Dallas County Sheriff's Department

At least a dozen police officers and sheriff's deputies arrived seconds later and followed the pair into the school. Moments later police were seen escorting two people out of the building in handcuffs.

A Dallas police officer carried the child in the car seat out of the center and the child was later evaluated by paramedics. The Dallas County Sheriff's Office says the baby was released to the grandfather unharmed.

DAY CARE GOES INTO LOCKDOWN

The Center says it immediately went into lockdown. Parents and a teacher tell NBC 5 the school had a lockdown drill with Dallas police just the day before.

"I messaged my sisters and said we're in a real lockdown. If anything happens I love you and I did get emotional because it feels like this could be your last few moments," said teacher Elizabeth Newmann.

Newmann says she barricaded her door and hid in a bathroom with her students and a parent who happened to be at school picking up their child.

Frantic parents arrived at the school to pick up their children.

"My heart dropped and so I rushed over here to get her," said mom Kedeizia Littleton.

Rockwall Police, who initially attempted to stop the driver said they did not know a child was in the vehicle when the pursuit began.

It is also not yet known when the car was reported stolen.

Lakewest Head Start Center is a licensed child care center in the building with the capacity to care for 204 children ranging in age from infant to pre-K. The day care shares building space with Parkland Memorial Hospital's Lakewest Women's Health Center. Parkland said Thursday afternoon that the men never entered their part of the building and that a lockdown initiated when the men arrived has since been lifted.

Head Start of Greater Dallas released a statement Thursday evening saying, in part, "The safety of the children, staff, parents and community is our first priority."

The Dallas County Sheriff's Office says the baby's mother who arrived at the scene was also arrested on prior unrelated charges.

"I’m just glad she’s OK, everything is fine," said Littleton.