PASADENA (CNS) – Four people were arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with a Pasadena traffic crash that killed a woman and a boy in a minivan and left three other people injured, authorities said today.

The suspects, two men and two women, were described by police as uncooperative, refusing to reveal which of them was driving an SUV that slammed into the minivan during a police pursuit. The suspects are between 18 and 22 years old.

The crash occurred about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at Marengo Avenue at Maple Street, which serves as the westbound access road along the Foothill (210) Freeway.

The driver of the SUV had been stopped for a traffic violation one minute before the crash, but then sped away, Pasadena police Lt. Pete Hettema told City News Service.

The woman killed in the crash was 25 and the boy was 11, coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz said this morning. The two were cousins, police said. The other victims, all members of the same family, were transported to hospitals for treatment.

“We have an innocent family that was going about their business on a special day at a special time of year,” said Pasadena police chief Philip Sanchez. “We have a driver of a suspect vehicle that, at least preliminarily, is culpable for his action.”

The four people in the SUV were arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment of moderate injuries, then transported to the Pasadena jail, Hettema said.

An investigation continues to determine whether the four were connected to a shooting earlier in the day in which one man was killed and another critically wounded, police said.

The gunfire occurred in the 1900 block of Newport Avenue about 11 a.m. Tuesday, said Pasadena police Sgt. Ed Calatayud.

The SUV appeared to have been traveling away from a six-square-block area of Northwest Pasadena that had been cordoned off by police following the shooting.

The SUV “may have matched one of the vehicles they were looking at in connection with the shootings,” Hettema told CNS.

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