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Public officials and a woman in Hammond, Indiana, have raised questions about whether police should have chased a man and his girlfriend for stealing a case of beer.
The chase ended with a crash Thursday in an intersection and the death of a 13-year-old girl who was on her way home from the doctor with her grandmother.
The fleeing suspects ran a red light and hit a vehicle carrying Julianna Chambers and her 57-year-old grandmother, Theresa Paramo.
The girl was killed and the grandmother was critically injured, suffering a broken wrist and fractured ribs.
Police said Thursday that Donnell Howard, 31, and Jessica Pichon, 27, stole beer from a local store and nearly injured an officer during their escape.
Howard and Pichon sped off from East Chicago to Hammond, Indiana, only to T-bone the Chevy Equinox with Chambers and her grandmother inside, police said.
Cellphone video sent to WLS-TV showed the aftermath of the crash. The video showed Howard still attempting to escape after the crash and being tackled by a police officer. He wasn't injured; his accomplice suffered minor injuries.
Now, local officials and Howard’s mother are asking, “Why did you chase him?”
“I want my son to pay whatever price he has to pay for what he did, but that could have been avoided. Why did you chase him?” Howard's mother asked. “The whole police department knows how to contact Donnell. All they got to do is find the truck, and the truck is usually right there in East Chicago at the library.”
According to WLS-TV, Howard was “well known to police as the town vagrant, arrested numerous times for petty crimes and known to sleep in the parking lot of the library.”
“If you’re going to have a high-speed chase, it should be over some felony, or the public’s in danger," Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott said. “A case of beer? Sometimes you’ve got to let the bad guy get away. And I think this is one of those times. I personally do.”
McDermott said he’s ordered a review of police conduct.
Family members are mourning the death of Julianna.
“She was a good kid in school. I loved her to death, how great she was, you know. She was my pride and joy, she was a part of my heart, and I needed people to know they took an innocent kid,” Julianna’s paternal grandmother, Norma Chambers, said tearfully. “I think it was ridiculous for these kids to go out and rob a store just to get booze, just so they can, like, party.”
A GoFundMe campaign was started by Julianna's mother, Cecilia Paramo, to help cover funeral expenses.
As of Friday afternoon, more than $11,000 had been raised.
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