The parents of a 15-year-old Harrisburg boy who was killed when the stolen car he was driving crashed into a tree during a chase by city police has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.
Waleska Santiago and Jaime Winston claim the pursuit that killed their son Kobe Santiago in November was “reckless, dangerous and unreasonable” and should not even have been initiated by an officer.
By doing so, the police violated Kobe’s constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure and deprived him of due process of law and ensured he suffered a “painful death,” the parents contend in the U.S. Middle District Court complaint.
An attempt to obtain comment on the suit from city Solicitor Neil Grover was not immediately successful Wednesday morning.
Kobe was one of three teens in the stolen car when it crashed at 25th and Brookwood streets on Nov. 25. Jayquan Barber, 16, was critically injured and a third boy, 17, suffered less severe injuries.
Police have said the officer involved in the chase ended the pursuit about a block and a half before the fatal crash occurred. They said the stolen car hit a dip in the road and went airborne before slamming into the tree.
Kobe Santiago
The pursuit began after the owner of the car, which was stolen on Thanksgiving Day, spotted it and called police. An officer tried to pull the car over, but Kobe refused to stop, police said. City Police Commissioner Thomas Carter said soon after the incident that the pursuit was mostly low speed, covered about a mile, and lasted roughly four minutes.
In their suit, Kobe’s parents claim the pursuit violated a “clandestine” city police policy that bars officers from engaging in chases in cases that don’t involve “forcible felonies,” such as robberies and assaults. Through sources, PennLive confirmed such a policy exists.
The parents, represented by Harrisburg attorney Leticia C. Chavez-Freed, claim police had no reason to believe the teens in the stolen car had committed a violent crime. Police identified Kobe as the driver.
The decision by police to initiate the pursuit constituted “deliberate indifference” to the safety of Kobe and the other teens in the car, the parents contend.
“It is widely recognized that vehicular pursuits carry a substantial risk of injury and/or death,” the suit states. The police, it adds, “were not acting in a highly pressurized situation because there was no cause to believe (Kobe) either committed or attempted to commit a violent felony or that he was in possession of a deadly weapon.”
The parents seek unspecified financial damages on claims including negligence, failure to properly train officers and civil rights violations.