The Associated Press
OXFORD, Ala. (AP) -- A woman is questioning why police from Oxford and Anniston pursued a car in a high-speed chase that ended when the car struck and killed her son as he drove on a pizza delivery.
“What did they get out of it?” asked Donna Johns.
Her son, Robert Nabors, 21, of Oxford, a full-time college student who worked nights delivering pizza, was killed Sunday night when his car was struck head-on by a car driven by Miguel Mendez, 30, of Oxford. Mendez was taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham in critical condition after the wreck.
Johns said police could have called ahead for a roadblock or pursued from a distance until the suspect pulled over.
“When the cops are chasing you, you’re going to go as fast as you can to get away,” she told The Anniston Star in a story Wednesday.
Police said officers tried to pull Mendez over on Alabama Highway 202 for speeding, driving erratically and having broken taillights when the chase began. It continued for several miles on the highway, with Mendez nearly hitting police cars twice and knocking an officer aside who approached on foot and tried to open the door after Mendez stopped at an intersection, police said.
The chase ended just inside Talladega County on Alabama Highway 21 when Mendez struck Nabors’ northbound car.
State trooper spokesman Donald Frazier said Mendez likely will be charged with vehicular homicide in addition to felony assault and misdemeanor traffic violations.
Anniston Police Chief John Dryden said that because Mendez was speeding and swerving, he was a threat to the public and had to be pursued.
“I wish we didn’t have to do it,” he said.
Two days after the chase ended with Nabors’ death, police in Gadsden backed off pursuit of a woman who had been driving erratically. After pursuing officers had slowed, the suspect’s car struck a pickup truck, slightly injuring one person in the truck and seriously injuring the suspect, police said.
Larry McCoy, director of Mississippi-based Victims of Police Pursuits, which advocates alternatives to police chases, said officers need to ask themselves if the chase’s potential benefits outweigh its risks.