A fired Gwinnett County police officer has been charged with vehicular homicide in a wreck that killed one teenager and injured another, officials said.
Scott York also faces charges of reckless driving and driving too fast for conditions in connection with the Jan. 29 crash that killed 16-year-old Jose Coreas-Mejia and injured 18-year-old Joel Melendez-Coreas, according to Gwinnett jail records.
York is now out on a $7,000 bond, according to jail records. He left the jail about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Coreas-Meija and Melendez-Coreas were hit when York’s police cruiser jumped the curb along Stonewood Drive on the way to a pedestrian-hit call, police said.
After being in the hospital for about a week, Coreas-Mejia died about 11:30 a.m. Monday at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, police Cpl. Michele Pihera said.
Melendez-Coreas was treated and released the same day.
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York told investigators he was on a four-lane road when he traveled to the center lane to pass another car, authorities said. But at the same time, the car started merging into the center lane. Police concluded that York was going 97 mph based on the marks on the pavement and black box data.
His blue lights and siren were activated.
Officials say York was responding to a personal injury traffic accident, which is considered a Code 2 response. It was later determined York violated department policy when he was going more than 60 mph over the 40-mph speed limit before the accident.
According to section 440.02 of the department’s general directives manual, during a Code 2 response an officer can have “intermittent use of emergency lights and siren is authorized to proceed through intersections and congested areas ... at no time shall the posted speed limit be exceeded.”
York, who had been with the department since April, was fired.
At the time he was fired, York had a relatively clean record. He was implicated in three use-of-force incidents, each involving him using his Taser on a suspect. He was found justified in each of those incidents.
York’s lawyer, Lawrence Zimmerman, said the former officer is remorseful.
"My client is saddened and very upset that someone has passed away,” Zimmerman said. “He can’t believe it and his heart goes out to the young man’s family."
