CLEVELAND — Two Parma police pursuits ended up in the city of Cleveland in just a matter of days, leaving three people dead in the process.
Cleveland City Council members are now calling for a sit-down with Parma Police to go over its chase policy.
The officers' actions are now under review to see whether they followed protocol for pursuits.
Parma Police say the three men who died did not stop for the officers who had lights and sirens on.
Police say both drivers had hit other cars before the chases.
Parma Police released a new video from last Thursday’s chase and fiery crash. It shows an officer spotting and then chasing a black Ford Fusion.
The officer can’t keep up and then seems to lose the car before it crashes head-on into a Chevy Traverse.
Kenneth Lemons died in the crash at Pearl and Woburn in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
“His reckless actions were occurring prior to the officer pursuing him,” Parma Police Lt. Dan Ciryak said.
Police didn’t know about the Ford Fusion hitting another car on Brookpark Road before they spotted it going nearly 100 miles per hour and gave chase.
“That individual was already driving basically like a madman, so he gained the officer’s attention by his driving and then it’s not something officers can just turn a blind eye to,” Lt. Ciryak said.
Two days later, this is how it ended for two men in a Honda Accord driving the wrong way on I-176.
Jibriel Allen and Darnell Prince of Chardon died.
“That was after a hit-skip, so the officer witnessed a hit-skip at the intersection of State and Brookpark Road and attempted to stop him, and then he fled from the officer,” Lt. Ciryak said.
Ciryak says the officer believed the Honda got off at Spring Road from I-176 North.
On the ODOT video, you see the Honda speeding through an intersection, getting right back on 176, cutting across the grass, and going the wrong way. The car catches fire in a head-on crash.
Watch our report on this crash:
“The officer lost sight of the suspect vehicle, so at that point, he just self-terminated the pursuit,” Ciryak said.
But Ciryak says the officer came back around, saw the crash and tried to put the fire out and help.
“I’m not concerned yet Parma police did anything wrong. It does, however, have this compounding effect when you have a couple incidents so close to each other,” Cleveland Councilman Kris Harsh said.
Council members Harsh and Rebecca Maurer now want a sit down with Parma Police about their pursuit policy.
“We do want to talk about it, though — this is a subject that’s been brought up to me a lot by residents in Old Brooklyn who often see Parma Police pursuing into the city,” Harsh said.
Per Parma policy, officers must consider the seriousness of the offense, the recklessness of the driver, the likelihood of an arrest, traffic conditions and the neighborhood.
“At least by running with your lights and sirens, you are warning other people,” Ciryak said.
“It’s either up to the officer or the supervisor to allow that pursuit to continue or to terminate the pursuit,” Ciryak said.
In the case of 176, police confirmed a driver in the same car was stopped in an unrelated speeding case about an hour and a half earlier.
A gun was found in the car, but it was legal, and the driver was let go with a ticket.
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