Search On For Bay Area Man Who Crashed Car, Ditched Hurt Daughter

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (AP) - A Northern California man abandoned his seriously injured 6-year-old daughter in the backseat of a car he wrecked while fleeing police, authorities said.

Police on Friday were seeking the man, 29-year-old Kelvin Govan, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

San Leandro Police were investigating a home invasion robbery when they spotted a car matching a description of the suspects Thursday.

The car sped up instead of pulling over, and during a brief pursuit the driver lost control and crashed into a wall in nearby Oakland, where he and a male passenger ran away, police Lt. Robert McManus told the Oakland Tribune.

Officers found the girl in the car's backseat and she was taken to a hospital with head trauma that police said was substantial and would require surgery, though the girl is expected to survive.

The passenger was arrested shortly after the crash and was being held on suspicion of resisting arrest.

Govan, the girl's father, escaped. Police later found that he and his passenger, whose name has not been released, had nothing to do with the robbery that sparked the chase, and it wasn't immediately clear why they fled.

"We ask that the man responsible for today's pursuit surrender himself to police," McManus said in a statement. "If you know who he is and where he is, please call the police and tell us. He placed everyone, especially his daughter, in great danger when he chose to flee from officers."

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.