A Denver police undercover officer who smashed into a school tutor's car while pursuing a robbery suspect apparently violated department policy by chasing a vehicle in an unmarked pickup without lights and a siren.

The 90-second pursuit of a robbery suspect covered a little more than two miles, crossing from Denver into a Lakewood residential neighorbhood. If the pursuit took the most direct route, the officer was averaging more than 60 miles an hour, according to an analysis of the police dispatcher recording.

The officer was after Manuel Santistevan, 26, a fugitive believed to be armed and dangerous. Santistevan's "hooded safe bandits" gang is accused of more than 20 armed robberies of fast-food restaurants, dollar stores and coffee shops in the Denver area.

After the crash the suspect and a woman abandoned his white Cadillac STS nearby and escaped, despite an intensive ground and air search.

"These undercover officers were pursuing, doing everything they could to keep this extremely dangerous suspect in sight while at the same time trying to get marked units in to assist with the stop," Denver police Det. John White said Thursday.

The officer's black Dodge pickup skidded through a stop sign, hitting and flipping over a silver sedan driven by Edith Mack.

She suffered a fractured pelvis but was in fair condition Thursday at St. Anthony Central Hospital.

The unidentified officer was not injured.

Denver's vehicle pursuit policy, one of the most strict in the nation, states: "Vehicles not equipped with operable lights AND siren shall not become involved in vehicle pursuits."

"That particular undercover vehicle was not equipped with emergency lights and siren," White said.

Police officials would not say whether the pickup's lack of safety equipment violated policy, saying it would be the subject of an extensive review conducted of all pursuits.

Officials also declined to comment about the undercover detective's speed during the chase.

"I don't think it would be fair for me to pass judgment at this point without having the investigation conducted," White said.

The FBI offered a "significant" reward Thursday for help in finding Santistevan. The FBI declined to cite the reward amount.

The undercover detective was working with the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, which includes the FBI and Denver and Aurora police.

The "hooded safe bandits" gang was named for the members' practice of wearing hoods and masks in robberies where they brazenly brandish guns and demand access to a merchant's safe, said FBI spokeswoman Rene A. Vonder Haar.

The gang is dangerous, she said. "That's why we want to get them off the street."

Santistevan's criminal history includes arrests for breaking into a car and obstructing a police officer. His younger brother, Roman Santistevan, who was arrested Wednesday and is believed to be another member of the gang, was also arrested in June for possession of marijuana and carrying a concealed weapon.

The crash happened just after Mack left Lakewood's Molholm Elementary School, where she has been an English-as-a-second-language tutor for seven years.

She declined an interview request Thursday through St. Anthony Central Hospital spokeswoman Bev Lilly.

This was the second time in five days that a police pursuit of the robber gang ended with the injury of an innocent motorist.

On Friday Westminster police chased men suspected of robbing an Arby's into Denver, where the suspects' car crashed into a city truck near the Auraria campus, White said.

One man was arrested and another escaped. The truck driver was hospitalized.

The incident Wednesday began at 3:40 p.m., when a task-force undercover team, including FBI agents, were staking out a home on the 200 block of South Zenobia Street. Santistevan and an unidentified woman were seen leaving the house in a white sedan, prompting officers to pursue them.

The collision happened at the intersection of Ninth Avenue and Gray Street in a residential area of Lakewood.

The unmarked pickup pursued the fleeing Cadillac northbound through a stop sign on Gray, according to the Lakewood police accident report. The pickup slammed into Mack's sedan, which was traveling east on 9th Avenue and had the right of way.

Jacki Dickman, 32, who lives on the southeast corner of the intersection, heard the collision.

"There was this screeching of tires and a hard crash," she said. "I came out, and the officer was out of his truck."

Dickman said she saw the officer's truck pointed south. She saw the tutor's vehicle upside down on the street, with Mack still inside.

"She was just hanging there," Dickman said. The officer "went up to the car to help her."

Dickman said she saw Denver police officers, members of the Safe Streets Task Force and Joan Chavez, principal of Molholm Elementary, at the scene soon after the accident.

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