Mother's High-speed Chase Leads To Baby's Death

[AZFF25]

Mother's high-speed chase leads to baby's death
9-month-old ejected from SUV when woman crashes trying to evade police
______________________________ ______________________________ ___
Updated: 7:57 a.m. MT April 8, 2007
______________________________ ______________________________ ___

ALVARADO, Texas - A woman led police on a 25-mile high speed chase until she crashed into a concrete median, killing her 9-month-old daughter in the collision, authorities said.

Alexxus Riza was thrown Friday night from the SUV, which rolled several times under an Interstate 35 overpass, said Trooper Dub Gillum of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The vehicle struck a traffic light before hitting the concrete barrier, officials said.

Aimee Andrea Riza, 36, of Keene, sustained minor injuries and was charged with manslaughter, evading arrest, resisting arrest and reckless driving, Gillum said.

“She was combative after the crash when they tried to extract her out of the vehicle,” he said. “The officers had to wrestle her to get her under control.”

A motorist had called the Somervell County Sheriff’s Department to report a reckless driver. When Riza refused to stop, authorities chased her through two counties at speeds up to 110 mph, Gillum said.

Authorities used spikes, tried to block intersections ahead and backed off the SUV hoping it would slow down. But Riza continued to drive until she crashed, traveling on the rims after the SUV’s tires were deflated, Gillum said.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

[dday05]

This is very upsetting. The poor baby is am innocent victim of a dumbass parent.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Unbelievable. :mad:

May that baby sleep in the arms of the angels. :( :(

[ndvfdff33]

Absolutely Sickening:mad:

Rest Easy Little One.

[DaSharkie]

Sad thing is there will be two crowds of people coming out on this one:

1) Those saying that there was no need for the police to institute a chase (thereby taking all responsibility from the mother and placing it on the police.)

2) Those who say she should not be punished harshly because of any number of reasons.


Then again, I am just bitter and cynical.

[ElectricHoser]

Every cop's nightmare.

Assuming the mother gives a damn and will regret her actions - probably not a good assumption - throwing the book at her is still inadequate.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

:( :( :(

[nmfire]

Of course this is all the police's fault. You know it is coming. The blood sucking lawyers are probably lining up to take this woman's case. Within a year or two, this will also be a big episode of Law and Order to be replayed on TNT for years to come.

[DFW333]

If I was the judge over any wrongful death suit brought up by this woman I would throw it out immediately. She didnt care about her kid then and is only trying to get money now.

[OlieCan]

1) Those saying that there was no need for the police to institute a chase (thereby taking all responsibility from the mother and placing it on the police.)
.

Im sure the police didn't know there was a child in the car, otherwise they probably would have called it off. I think thats how they usually work...


RIP.

[MalahatTwo7]

Tough call. :( Glad it was not mine to attend. The loss of a little one is always tough to swallow. Maybe she is in a better place now.

[dave29]

Whata damn fu-king SOB
Hope she rots in hell

[MalahatTwo7]

In a similar vein:

New rules would end most police chases. Leading cause of pursuits vehicle theft, no longer deemed serious enough to justify the risk

Rob Shaw, Times Colonist Published: Sunday, April 08, 2007

New, more restrictive rules for police pursuits in Victoria could reduce the number of high-speed chases by up to 90 per cent, the Times Colonist has learned.

Only nine per cent of chases in Victoria in the past six years -- approximately seven of 82 cases -- were started for what could be defined as "serious" criminal offences. Those included breaking and entering, robbery, armed carjacking, erratic driving that forced an officer to fire his gun at the driver, two hit and runs, and a suicidal driver.

The data from 2001 to 2005 were obtained by the Times Colonist under the Freedom of Information Act. The Victoria Police Department's new guidelines, restricting chases to the most serious offences, are expected to be unveiled later this month.

Chief Paul Battershill said he's aware that by changing the rules, Victoria will eliminate the vast majority of its chases. "Your stats are very consistent with what we are told," said Battershill, adding police aren't worried about the change. "One of the concerns we had was whether we would be impacting apprehension rates and theft-of-auto rates [by limiting pursuits] and the indications we got from other cities were that it wouldn't change."

Even with strict rules in place, officers will need to make judgment calls, he said. "Is it going to eliminate all pursuits? No. I don't think there's anywhere in the world you could eliminate it all."

Police departments across Canada and the United States are looking to restrict pursuits because courts are increasingly finding officers liable if a chase ends in a crash that injures innocent bystanders.

The leading cause of police chases in Victoria is stolen vehicles. Approximately 17 per cent of chases since 2001 were pursuits of stolen vehicles, and a further 13 per cent were triggered by "suspicious vehicles," some later identified as stolen, according to the data.

However, the judge in a court ruling on a Burnaby police chase in 2005 said vehicle theft does not constitute a serious enough offence to justify the danger to the public posed by a high-speed chase.

The B.C. Justice Institute, which trains police officers, estimates 38 per cent of police pursuits end in crashes, and 15 per cent of those crashes cause injuries.

Approximately 41 per cent of Victoria's chases ended in crashes, ranging from minor spin-outs to flip-overs at high speeds. Sometimes a pursuit was discontinued but the suspect vehicle crashed anyway. One pursuit, on May 25, 2004, ended in a fatality when Const. Derek Tolmie inadvertently ran over a motorcyclist who fell off his bike when fleeing police. In another incident, on March 6, 2002, police shot and injured a man in an automobile who attempted to back over an officer who was on foot.

Data were not yet available for 2006 and 2007. However, police shot and killed a man after a pursuit on Feb. 3, 2007.

Other offences that triggered chases in Victoria were speeding, erratic driving, disobeying red lights or stop signs, evading a police roadblock and suspected drunk driving. Victoria police chose to call off pursuits 32 per cent of the time because the suspect vehicle reached unsafe high speeds, officers lost sight of who they were pursuing, or the chase entered another police jurisdiction and was taken over by that department.

Leading cause of pursuits vehicle theft, no longer deemed serious enough to justify the risk

The figures show officers were using their discretion wisely by calling off unsafe chases, Battershill said.

- - -

HOW THE DATA WERE COMPILED

All B.C. police departments are required to record and submit high-speed pursuit data to the provincial government each year.

On March 15, the Times Colonist requested a complete list of pursuits recorded by the Victoria Police Department from 2001 to 2005 (the most recent available complete year) under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The fee for processing this information was $300. Part of the charge was due to the fact police were forced to scour their own archives for individual case files, after officers neglected to include case-file numbers when submitting their data to the government in some years.

The department released the information April 5. Upon the TC's request, police compiled short narratives of each case, including the officers involved, reasons for the pursuit, speeds reached, the outcome, and the supervisors.

The TC converted those narratives into a spreadsheet showing the type of offence that justified the pursuit, the officers involved, whether the chase was called off and whether it ended in a crash.

What constitutes a "serious" offence is complicated and subjective -- and something police departments and courts across North America are wrestling to define.

For the purposes of these data, it was assumed a break and enter, robbery, armed carjacking, erratic driving with shots fired at the driver, a suicidal driver, and two hit-and-run cases were "serious" offences. There were no recorded cases of chases prompted by other serious offences, such as murder or sexual assault.

Speeding, disobeying red lights and other unsafe driving practices are typically Motor Vehicle Act offences that result in fines rather than criminal charges.

As well, recent court cases have made clear that vehicle theft is not considered a serious enough offence to justify a risky chase.

The full 28-page police response to our FOI request is available on the TC website: www.timescolonist.com

rfshaw@tc.canwest.com

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007