Police pursuit ends in drivers death

[TerryH]

Okay, sounds typical, driver breaks simple traffic code, takes off, rams a few police cars, pursuit continues, gets head blown off, dies behind wheel. Hey, too bad, ramming occupied police cars is seen as using deadly force. Then you read the driver was a woman and then there's the 18 month old baby in the back seat.

Suddenly there is much more drama to the story than has yet been told....

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/police-officers-chase-2360446-santa-car

[Rick Lee]

I think anyone who leads police on a high-speed chase should be shot. There's no difference between that and firing a gun randomly at a shopping mall. Total disregard for others' lives and just pure luck if you don't kill anyone. Take them out. That she did this with a child in the car only proves she had no regard for anyone. Good riddance.

[TerryH]

Yeah, I agree, but there's the added tragedy of kid without her mom and all that. You know, bullets wizzing through a car with a baby sitting there. No doubt glass flying everywhere. The only saving grace here is the baby is too young to remember any of it. I guess I was looking at this through the childs eyes.

[Rick Lee]

I'm sure the cop had no idea there was a child in the car. It's pretty unthinkable that anyone but a carjacker would drive like that with a child in the car. I am curious to learn more details like where the cop was when he fired, on foot or in his car, where the driver was hit, was this just a lucky shot.

Last week, two cops did an undercover heroin sting just up the road from me. Once the the trap was sprung, the seller jumped in his car and floored it for the cops. They shot him and his car ran off the road when he expired.

A few years ago in Alexandria, VA a cop shot at an SUV that floored it toward him when he stood in front of it and ordered them to stop. Killed a kid in the back seat, driver was uninjured. They were teenagers doing the dine and dash at an IHOP.

[Roosterrusek]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I'm sure the cop had no idea there was a child in the car. It's pretty unthinkable that anyone but a carjacker would drive like that with a child in the car. I am curious to learn more details like where the cop was when he fired, on foot or in his car, where the driver was hit, was this just a lucky shot.

Last week, two cops did an undercover heroin sting just up the road from me. Once the the trap was sprung, the seller jumped in his car and floored it for the cops. They shot him and his car ran off the road when he expired.

A few years ago in Alexandria, VA a cop shot at an SUV that floored it toward him when he stood in front of it and ordered them to stop. Killed a kid in the back seat, driver was uninjured. They were teenagers doing the dine and dash at an IHOP.

And the teens hopefully are serving sentences for involuntary homicide for being the immediate and foreseeable cause of the kid in the back seat. Meaning, don't try to run over a cop and not expect him to defend himself.

[cgarr]

That's what they need to do on the border, pick off a few and soon the word will get out, you cross and your dead, period!

[ted]

the baby (public too) was no safer left with a mommy at the wheel in ramming mode.
A car can be a weapon of destruction as deadly as a gun.

[Rick Lee]

The only problem I have with shooting someone while driving is that a dead body behind the wheel can be more dangerous than a live one. That's a tough call. If there were no pedestrians or other cars around, then ok. But that's rarely the case.

[onewhippedpuppy]

So a drunk woman runs from the cops at up to 110 MPH, rams the cop cars, then is shot and killed? Sounds like the police were doing their job, thank God the woman didn't manage to kill someone else. At 18 months hopefully the baby isn't too screwed up and can go to a nice family where it might actually have a future.

[ted]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

The only problem I have with shooting someone while driving is that a dead body behind the wheel can be more dangerous than a live one. That's a tough call. If there were no pedestrians or other cars around, then ok. But that's rarely the case.

So that's the choice a dead body behind the wheel for half a block or less or a known aggressive driver ramming for as long as the car will last.

My first choice would be some kind of high tech car diasable device.

[dhoward]

The real tragedy is that anybody can have a child...

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by TerryH

Yeah, I agree, but there's the added tragedy of kid without her mom and all that. You know, bullets wizzing through a car with a baby sitting there. No doubt glass flying everywhere. The only saving grace here is the baby is too young to remember any of it. I guess I was looking at this through the childs eyes.

Erm, yeah...i'm thinking at that point just back off and follow from a safe distance. At some point she's gonna run out of gas.

Shooting at a car with a child in it, insanely stupid. Could have been a kidnapped child for god's sakes! This of course IF the cop knew a kid was in the car.

PS: there is no evidence yet this woman was at all intoxicated, just an un-named cops word. Maybe she was, but i'm not about to condemn her for DUI based on a cop saying so. Cops lie through their teeth all the time to cover their own asses.

[TerryH]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Erm, yeah...i'm thinking at that point just back off and follow from a safe distance. At some point she's gonna run out of gas.

Shooting at a car with a child in it, insanely stupid. Could have been a kidnapped child for god's sakes! This of course IF the cop knew a kid was in the car.

PS: there is no evidence yet this woman was at all intoxicated, just an un-named cops word. Maybe she was, but i'm not about to condemn her for DUI based on a cop saying so. Cops lie through their teeth all the time to cover their own asses.

I'd like to think they never saw the child and it was simply luck he/she survived.

No question this woman needed to be stopped. A non-lethal method of stopping these crazy morons would be worth the investment. Isn't there something like an ignition killing device they can roll under a stopped or slow moving car or something?

[m21sniper]

They could certainly try and design some sort of focused EMP device for that purpose. Much simpler would be to include interrupter devices at the factory, but good luck getting that legislation passed into law, and good luck getting people to not hack them out of the car as soon as they buy it. Of course it could be integrated such that it could not be bypassed, but then you'd see people either A) stop buying new cars, or B) retrofitting older engines into them as a work around or even C) leaving the country.

Generally speaking i think the cops have enough power, and so do most of the rest of us i suspect.

I am personally a fan of departments that have a policy of low speed chases or laying back so the already panicked driver doesn't get even more reckless, and to prevent speeding cruisers from killing anyone else. Philadelphia dep't policy prohibits high speed pursuits for this reason. Though of course cops still do them and just lie about it. My ex repo partner has done so many times to nab a bad guy. There is a certain distance where if you chase them beyond that point it crosses the threshold into a pursuit and the cop is supposed to stop, so the exact distances are often fudged. Typically no one gets hurt so no one complains.

But the fact is that a small % of these pursuits end in tragedy for either pedestrians, other motorists or even cops themselves when a cop cruiser smashes into something trying to keep up. Many people have died this way, and many cities have banned the practice of high speed pursuits altogether.

This is doubly true for chasing drunks around at 100+ mph.

[gprsh924]

The kid without that mom is probably better off now

[m21sniper]

Well we certainly don't have the evidence to support that contention yet.

[Racerbvd]

WOW, that reporter is Smoking Hot!!!!

[TerryH]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

WOW, that reporter is Smoking Hot!!!!

Must be an acquired taste. Does less than zero for me.

[gprsh924]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Well we certainly don't have the evidence to support that contention yet.

I'm simply playing the law of averages and assuming that is the cased based on the type of decision making that would lead someone to go on a drunken, 110mph police chase with their 18mo old kid in the car.

[m21sniper]

She looks damn good to me too.