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In a half dozen instances since April, authorities did give chase - often with deadly consequences. In most of the cases, innocent motorists not involved in the chases were killed.
An elderly woman who visited a relative in a hospital. A 39-year-old woman on her way to work. A young man driving down a boulevard.
Mississippi lawmakers in the upcoming session will again discuss policies of various police and sheriffs' departments. At the end of this pursuit, they hope, is a uniform state policy that will cut down on chases and save lives.
"It's always an issue," said Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, who chairs the House Judiciary B Committee. "A statewide policy needs to come from the Legislature. We've got to save lives."
Recent pursuits have sparked renewed interest in police pursuit policies for Blackmon.
On Dec. 1, a Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol officer launched a chase after a driver speeding along I-220 in Madison County refused to pull over. The speeding car lost control and crashed head-on into another car, killing Ricky Brown, 22, of Mendenhall. Brown's brother, Lamont, was a passenger and also was injured.
On Dec. 3, another chase ended with two killed in a head-on crash in Wilkinson County on Mississippi 24. The chase began in St. Francisville, La., when officers from that town attempted to serve Alex Wilson, 27, of Centreville with a felony arrest theft warrant.
When Wilson attempted to pass a vehicle traveling east on the two-lane highway, he collided with a westbound car driven by Cheryl Gilmore, 39, of Centreville. Gilmore died at the scene. She was on her way to work in nearby Woodville, a relative said.
Gilmore's sister, Anita Landingham of Baton Rouge, said she believes the police could have done something to prevent Gilmore's death.
"I just don't feel like it was right," Landingham, 44, said. "My sister lost her life senselessly. They could have called off the chase."
St. Francisville police chief Wendell Fontenot said his officers decided to continue the high-speed chase even though Wilson exceeded 100 mph because they deemed his arrest more important than the risks in pursuing him.
"Once pursuit begins, the jurisdictional lines become irrelevant," Fontenot said. "He was endangering the life and property of people and himself, and we were attempting to place him under arrest. If a suspect is endangering people in an effort to flee from justice, it is our responsibility to pursue."
A lawsuit is pending on an April high-speed chase that started in Raymond but ended in downtown Jackson with the death of an elderly woman.
Alice Clausell, 69, of Pascagoula had just finished visiting a daughter who was recovering from surgery at a hospital in Jackson when the car she was riding in was hit by Alice Marie Wilson, a suspect fleeing from Raymond and Jackson police.
A subsequent internal investigation concluded the Raymond officer "acted in the scope of his duties." But Clausell's family sued Raymond and Jackson, alleging negligence of officers involved in the pursuit. The case is pending in Hinds County Circuit Court.
"Something could have been done to avoid all the hurt and pain," said Kimberly Clausell, who survived the accident. "My mother still had good years left to live, but she was taken in the blink of an eye."
Deaths and injuries are always a risk when a chase occurs, Blackmon said. He hopes lawmakers will seriously address police pursuit policies, create better oversight over agencies' policies, and limit pursuits initiated because a suspect is evading arrest. As the law currently stands, it is a felony to flee and enough for most officers to justify a pursuit.
Rankin County Sheriff's Department legal counsel Richard Lawrence thinks additional legislation is unnecessary because there is no way to dictate how officers must respond in every situation.
"Every incident must be looked at individually," Lawrence said. "But in this day in time, there shouldn't be any department that doesn't have a policy."
In the metro area, police-pursuit policies are similar in that officers have the discretion to decide when to pursue.
Before a pursuit is initiated, an officer must consider whether the effects of the suspect getting away would be worse than potential effects or risks in chasing the suspect, Hinds County Capt. Ken Magee said.
"When deciding whether to chase or not to chase, there's a whole gamut of factors that play into this," Magee said. "We have a policy, and we train our officers on the policy so they have a guideline to refer to. We routinely review our policies to see if there are any ways they could be updated or need updating."
In Hinds County, a pursuit may be initiated if the deputy knows or has reason to believe the suspect committed a felony and immediate apprehension is necessary to protect others.
"We take a lot of things into consideration," Magee said, adding that if the deputy knows who the suspect is or has the tag number of the suspect's car, the deputy may choose not to pursue.
"There's no speed cut off," Magee said. "We just use lights and sirens. ... It's incumbent on each deputy to be aware of traffic conditions, reckless maneuvers the suspect may be attempting and if the threat to the public could outweigh the crime."
Pursuits may happen often in Hinds County because people refuse to pull over, but many are over almost as quickly as they begin, Magee said.
"Whether one occurs or doesn't occur is solely the decision of the offender," Magee said. "It's a decision they make. Obviously we hope they never occur because the officer's safety is at risk as well as the public's and the offender's. It's not a situation we like to be in."
Madison County deputies also are required to weigh the danger to the public versus the danger of the suspect remaining at large, said Madison County Chief Deputy Eddie Belvedresi.
"You've got to have enough faith in men and training that they have because they are the ones on the scene," Belvedresi said. "They know what they're looking at and most of the time they know who they're after or what they're after."
