CUYAHOGA COUNTY, Ohio — Two innocent bystanders have been killed as a result of police pursuits since August, which raises the question:
Is it time for Cuyahoga County to create a countywide pursuit policy?
RELATED: 54-year-old driver killed, 3 in custody following police pursuit and crash in Cleveland
According to a press release from Euclid Police, officers initially responded to a report of nearly 30 shots fired and a vehicle speeding away at St. Clair Ave and E 197th Street, near the Euclid-Cleveland border, just after midnight on Oct. 2.
Euclid officers patrolling the area spotted a stolen Jeep SUV in the parking lot of a bar on St. Clair Ave. FLOCK cameras indicated the vehicle had been in the area before the gunshots were reported. Suspecting the vehicle and its occupants may have been involved in the gunfire, police tried to contain it in the parking lot.
The car sped off westbound on St. Clair, followed by Euclid cruisers using lights and sirens. EPD said less than a minute after the pursuit began, it ended with the stolen SUV barreling into an unrelated Chevy Malibu.
An incident report reveals the stolen vehicle was pushing speeds of 90 mph during the short pursuit.
The driver of the Malibu has been identified as 54-year-old Maurice Ford.
Responding officers rendered lifesaving aid to Ford, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
"It's just very hurtful to know that this is happening a lot in the community and it creates trauma in the community as well," Ford's sister-in-law, Dolores Gray Ford, told me on Thursday.
In August, a 37-year-old woman was killed by a driver fleeing from Cuyahoga County deputies.
RELATED: 1 dead, multiple injured after pursuit ends in crash
"It's really troubling. It's outrageous that these individuals will take off, but we know why they take off. They got guns. They got drugs in the car, they got contraband and there's outstanding warrants. That's why they take off," Ward 8 Cleveland City Councilman and Safety Committee Chair, Mike Polensek said.
In this most recent deadly pursuit, records show not only was the suspect's vehicle stolen, but that the driver, 18-year-old Jeremiah Bacon, was wearing an ankle monitor.
After Bacon crashed the vehicle, he fled on foot but was quickly apprehended by a Euclid PD K-9.
Bacon has now been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide.
Two others who were in Bacon's stolen vehicle at the time of the crash have also been arrested.
Gray Ford said since then, Euclid Police haven't offered much information.
"No one has contacted them (the family) in regards to condolences or anything so that's very concerning to me," she said. "People don't understand once he's buried and gone, you know, most people forget about all of this, but it will happen again to someone else."
Ford is described as a true family man who could easily light up the room with his silliness and love for others, according to Gray Ford.
"They have a pretty large family," Ford said. "It has hit me hard because even though I don't see them on a daily, I do talk with them. I don't like being here on something like this. I think about his children and his grandson. His wife, she lost her husband, and the children don't have a dad anymore, so that's what gets to me."
Although he's no longer here, Ford said she hopes his untimely death will spark a change for the future.
Ford, along with more than two dozen people, gathered outside the Euclid Police Department for a "call for action" Thursday night.
"These things are happening every single day, and if it's not a child, it's an adult that's coming home, an innocent bystander, so it just has to end," Ford told me. "We have to do better. Our police have to do better."
Standing in the crowd on Thursday was Polensek.
"I'm here because Mr. Ford was a constituent of mine. He lived right around the corner from my house, lived right around the corner from my other son," Polensek said.
Polensek is now calling for a countywide pursuit policy.
"What I was told by our own people is that every city, every municipality has their own pursuit policy. Once they crossed Cleveland's borders, it's under their policy, not ours, yet we have to maintain that policy, and our officers have to live by it. At some point there's got to be a countywide discussion. There's gotta be a state-wide discussion (on) how we coordinate activities," Polensek said. "Somehow, we also got to get the message across to these kids: Do not flee. Do not run. Do not flee. Do not run. All you're doing is creating chaos and carnage in the death of an innocent man."
Polensek said if there were a countywide pursuit policy, it would be up to the individual cities if they'd like to adopt it.
"We can't mandate it. That's clear. It would have to be voluntary. Suburbs would have to buy into it. That's the problem we have. They're governed by state statute, so each one of them has their own pursuit policy just as we do," Polensek said.
I reached out to the Euclid Mayor, all of City Council, and the police department for a response to the call for action. Most didn't respond, and some declined.
