ST. LOUIS — A woman who was injured and the family of a woman who was killed after their car was hit by an SUV that was fleeing from police last year filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis, the St. Louis police chief and the officers involved.
The lawsuit claims three St. Louis police officers did not follow department protocol while they chased a nonviolent drug suspect throughout the city at high speeds on July 24, 2019.
Editor's note: the video above is from the incident last year.
During the course of the chase, the suspect swerved onto sidewalks, drove through densely populated residential areas, went the wrong direction on one-way streets and drove through a municipal park, according to the lawsuit.
He eventually crashed his SUV into a car near the intersection of Prairie Avenue and Page Boulevard in the Grand Center neighborhood. Thirty-eight-year-old Reniece Randall was killed and Jacqueline Armstrong was injured. Armstrong filed the lawsuit, along with Randall's son, Jemerio Harris.
The suit says the officers who chased the suspect were "careless and negligent throughout the pursuit."
"This lawsuit is about justice for our clients, one who has needlessly lost his mother, and another who suffered serious injury as a result of the pursuit," said Michael Durham, the plaintiffs' attorney in an email to 5 On Your Side. "But this suit acknowledges a broader wrong and is yet another reminder of the social injustices that arise when police procedures are ignored in our most disenfranchised neighborhoods."
St. Louis City Counselor Mike Garvin declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Read the entire lawsuit below:
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