Houston crime: 16-year-old charged with 5 crimes after police chase ends with deadly consequences
HOUSTON - A police chase ends in a fatal crash, leaving a 19-year-old dead, and a 16-year-old charged with a host of crimes, including felony murder, intoxication manslaughter, failure to stop and render aid, evading arrest and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
The deadly collision happened in Northwest Harris County.
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Detectives say the 16-year-old was driving a stolen Kia Forte, leading Houston police officers on a chase on the I-45 feeder at FM 1960. According to investigators, the 16-year-old ran a red light causing the fatal collision.
It all started as an officer spotted a street race on Interstate 45 around 2 a.m.
According to investigators, when a Houston police officer attempted to stop the racing cars, the 16-year-old driving the stolen Kia sped up, exited I-45 at FM 1960, blowing through a red light at more than 100 miles an hour, and smashing into the motorcycle, killing the 19-year-old rider. The motorcyclist was identified by authorities as Andres Saldana Sorto.
"We in law enforcement, we never want to see our innocent citizens get hurt as a result of a police chase. But unfortunately, when we have these criminals on the street that choose to intentionally and knowingly run from the police, and then you have a police officer that is sworn to preserve, protect and defend our citizens, that's a bad combination," says Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.
In fact, some in law enforcement are calling for changes.
"We do need stronger laws when it comes to fleeing from the police. We need our legislature and our elected officials to revisit this and raise the penalties for this ,because it is so dangerous," says HPD Executive Asst. Chief Larry Satterwhite.
"Just last week, we had three police chases in one day within a four-hour period. So it's becoming more and more prevalent," says Constable Herman. "Our criminal justice system is not making it easy for police because before our folks are finished doing their reports, these people are walking out of jail, most of the time on a PR bond."
Constable Herman says there has to be consequences to deter criminals from running from the police. At this point, he doesn't have any plans to change his pursuit policy.
"As long as I draw breath up here in Precinct 4, we'll never cower down to bad guys. We're going to keep fighting crime, doing what we do, and we're going to control crime."