NBC5-TV News Chicago
CHICAGO -- Relatives of a 24-year-old South Side woman killed in a traffic accident at a Riverdale intersection filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Chicago Monday, claiming that the accident occurred during a high-speed chase by Chicago police.
At a news conference, attorneys for the relatives of Robbie Williams announced the filing of the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the city and the accused hit-and-run driver, Eric Maluchnik.
The lawsuit claims Chicago police took part in a high-speed chase on Sept. 11 that led to the collision between Maluchnik’s vehicle and a minivan in which Williams was a passenger. Williams was being driven by friends to the home she shared with her two young daughters.
The crash occurred at about 1 a.m. near Indiana Avenue and 140th Street in Riverdale, a Riverdale police sergeant said just after the accident.
Attorneys claim that officers were chasing Maluchnik for allegedly driving with a suspended license when his sport utility vehicle slammed into the minivan, NBC5’s Dick Johnson reported.
Private investigator Paul Ciolino says pictures reveal the violent force of the crash.
“This van was hit so hard, it knocked the wheels and the back axle off of it, OK? It was like a bomb hit it,” Ciolino said. “If you see the second window right there, that was where Ms. Williams exploded out of the vehicle after she got hit, the impact was so great.”
At an unrelated event Monday, Chicago police Superintendent Phil Cline said the Internal Affairs Division was still looking into the accident. He said a Chicago police officer was the first police officer at the scene of the collision.
Cline did not confirm or deny that Chicago police were chasing Maluchnik.
“Our internal affairs division is looking into the allegation that it was a Chicago police officer that initiated the pursuit,” Cline said.
He declined to go into further detail, saying more information would likely come out at the end of the IAD investigation and during the hearings on the lawsuit.
Williams’ younger sister, Marya, and uncle, David McIntyre, said they want answers from Chicago police. They said witnesses confirmed Maluchnik was speeding away from three Chicago police cars with lights but no sirens on when the collision occurred.
Mayra Williams filed the lawsuit on behalf of her sister’s two young daughters, Aiyonna, 4, and Aniya, 1.
“I want to be able to tell (my nieces) why their mother died, and right now, I’m not able to do that,” Mayra Williams said. “We just want answers as to what happened, and we want to hold them fully responsible for this car crash.”
“Mayra has to raise these two little girls and we need to know for our satisfaction what happened that night,” McIntyre said. “We went out to the site, and we questioned people. We got a whole lot of responses from people in the area -- a lot of witnesses that saw what happened -- and they gave us answers that we want to hear from Chicago police.”
In the past two years, the Chicago Police Department has changed its chase policy, ordering officers to back off if the danger of a crash outweighs the importance of catching a fleeing suspect. Since that decision, the number of police chases in the city has reportedly been cut in half.