Last Friday, an 85-year-old woman became yet another of victim of a police vehicle pursuit. In the last month alone, multiple news outlets carried the unfortunate stories of people who died when police decided to engage in a car chase.
Authorities say the pursuit began when a Solon, Ohio patrol officer saw a 2012 Ford Fusion that had been reported stolen by gunpoint the day before. That’s according to a press release from Solon Police Department in Ohio, and the latest update from Cleveland’s Fox 8.
An officer spotted the car and attempted to make a stop, but the driver sped off. Police then pursued the car through two other towns before losing sight of it. Police in the respective towns quickly picked up the pursuit.
The stolen Fusion later returned to Solon, where an officer deployed a Stop Stick tire deflation device in an attempt to stop the car. The driver of the stolen vehicle tried to navigate around the spikes, but instead lost control and crashed into two other cars.
You can see the Fusion try to avoid the strips in this dashcam video shared by Cleveland’s News 5 at around the 1:41 mark. You will not see the actual crash, but you can see the moment the Fusion swerved and lost control, and you can very notably hear the crash behind the squad car.
The drivers of those two vehicles suffered non-life-threatening injuries. One of those drivers was an 89-year-old Chagrin Falls man who authorities say was driving the car that 85-year-old Sally Schultz was riding in.
According to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, Ms. Schultz later died Friday evening from injuries sustained in the crash. The Solon Police Department release posted late yesterday on their Twitter account confirms that.
The 19-year-old man and 20-year-old man who stole the car in the first place are also recovering from injuries sustained in the crash and are facing criminal charges.