43
Officers cleared in fatal pursuit
YOUNGSTOWN
An internal-affairs investigation at the Youngstown Police Department has determined officers did nothing wrong in a high-speed police pursuit that killed a 19-year-old woman.
Internal affairs had been investigating the June 5 accident in which Satavia Douglass, 19, of Southern Boulevard, crashed a stolen car into the First Presbyterian Church on Wick Avenue and was killed. She is believed to have been fleeing from police at the time of the accident.
Lt. Brian Butler of the YPD internal-affairs division said the investigation into the matter has been concluded.
“The investigation showed that the officers followed the pursuit policy, and there were no violations in the pursuit,” he said.
Butler said officers were responding to a reported breaking and entering when the chase began. He said the department does allow police officers to chase a suspect in the commission of a felony offense.
Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said there are cases where a chase will be terminated if it is deemed unsafe to the public, but he said the chase involving Douglass did not last long enough for a determination to be made as to whether or not it was a danger to the public.
Butler said the actual chase lasted less than one minute and covered less than a mile.
Police responded shortly after midnight to a reported break-in and car theft at Jordan’s Auto Sales, a used-car dealership at 839 Wick Ave.
Police saw the black, four-door 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer leave the used car lot, jump a curb, and speed southbound on Wick Avenue, without its headlights or taillights shining, according to Patrolman Arthur Carter, who wrote the police report.
With police in pursuit, the driver lost control near Lincoln Avenue and swerved several times before crashing into the church two blocks south, directly beneath its clock and steeple.
The car was embedded into the north side of the tower, and the impact broke a south-facing tower window.