OAN’s Elizabeth Bolbelding
11:28am – Monday, April 29, 2024
Four teenagers lost their lives in a police chase in Florida after the officer used certain tactics to stop the vehicle, but something went wrong and the car spun out of control. became.
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A high-speed police pursuit claimed the lives of four Florida teens, including a “star football player,” when their car lost control, rolled over and wrapped around a utility pole, authorities said.
Police say the deadly chase occurred on April 20ththwhen officers first received a call about a stolen Honda CRV. After hearing police sirens, the car drove the wrong way at about 111 mph.
The four teens, ages 14 to 16, reportedly attended Newberry High School in Bradford County, northeast of Gainesville. Two of the teens have been identified as Lawrence McClendon Jr., a sophomore defensive back on the high school football team, and Jabrill Cheevers, a student at the high school.
Two of the teens in the car died at the scene in the Waldo area, and the other two died from their injuries several days later at UF Health Shands Hospital.
After receiving a report of a stolen SUV in Gainesville, police located the vehicle and pursued it. A license plate scanner spotted the car just hours after it was stolen.
Officers observed multiple people inside the vehicle and attempted to stop the vehicle. The car appeared to be slowing down, but the driver suddenly hit the gas pedal and accelerated, causing the car to reach 111 mph.
Police patrol cars were “unable to catch up with the car” due to an internal feature that prevents sudden acceleration.
Bradford County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Brad Smith said, “We have checked with the Gainesville Police Department and the vehicle is still reported as stolen and officers are waiting until they have three backup vehicles with them.” We initiated a traffic stop.” of main street daily news. “They did begin to pull over to the side of the road, but before coming to a complete stop, they accelerated again and the pursuit began from there.”
” [Florida] At that point, the only vehicle that could actually keep up with them was the Highway Patrol,” Smith said. “Although our vehicles cannot match the speed they were going, we continued to try to have one of our units stay as close to the FHP as possible as a reserve unit until the Alachua County units caught up. .”
At that point, the Florida Highway Patrol was alerted and officers continued to pursue the vehicle. The officer then used Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) to ram the side of the vehicle. As a result, the SUV overturned and collided with a cement pillar.
Troopers involved in the pursuit reportedly observed some of the occupants “appearing to be wearing ski masks,” according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
“The officer intentionally made contact with the Honda, causing it to slow down,” the Highway Patrol said in a statement. “Trooper utilized the change in speed to perform a PIT maneuver on the fleeing Honda to thwart the threat posed by the fleeing suspect. The Honda then overturned and struck a cement pillar.”
The McClendon family gofundme This page supports funeral expenses.
“It’s worrying to see so many deaths in quick succession, but all we can do as a community is to wrap our arms around each other, love each other, ask ourselves what we have to do, and do it. ” said Mayor Newberry. Jordan Marlowe, who teaches at the high school, said: main street daily news.
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