Remedy Smith, 11 Months Old, and Mother Latoya Smith, Gina Rosario, 6, Another Child, Killed After Motorcycle Thief's Car Jumps Curb in Police Chase

A dirtbag fleeing police after stealing a motorcycle, plowed his car into a crowd in Feltonville, Pa., last night, killing three children and the mother of one of them. A bystander said that he saw the bodies of two of the children who appeared to have been dismembered and a girl pinned under the car. The two of the deceased are 11-month old Remedy Smith, 7-year-old, Gina Marie Rosario and Remedy's mother, Latoya Smith has succumbed to the injuries she sustained from the accident. This is a senseless tragedy that should not have occurred. Where is the justification for the police engaged in a high speed chase in a residential area? The protection of citizens should be paramount, not secondary. Sorry, the cops were just as complicit in the chase as the scumbag who caused the deaths of these innocent kids. There's a big difference between a high speed chase on a freeway and one in a residential area.

Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, gave this account:

At 7:29 p.m. at Fisher and Rising Sun Avenues in Olney, two men took a Yamaha motorcycle at gunpoint. One rode off on the Yamaha; the other fled in a silver Pontiac Grand Am.

At 7:31, an officer spotted the Pontiac at C Street and Roosevelt Boulevard and began chasing it.

The Pontiac turned south on Third and jumped the curb just south of Annsbury, Vanore said. It struck four people: three children younger than 10 - one a toddler - and a woman who was the mother of one of the victims, he said.

Two of the children were pronounced dead at the scene. Another was pronounced dead at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. The woman, who is in her 20s, was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center in critical condition. The high-speed crash was so violent that the Pontiac was totaled and ended up wedged between a rowhouse and a utility pole. Source: Philly.com

So, here's the problem I have with this whole situation, besides the fact that law enforcement has decided not to release the name of the criminal for now. Why was there a high-speed chase through a neighborhood? The police said they spotted the car minutes after receiving a report of a stolen motorcycle and pursued it for about a mile. Aren't there tactics the police could have employed to disable the vehicle the dirtbag was driving? The car jumped the curb with such force it crushed the concrete steps of one of the row houses. It became wedged between a house and a pole. Authorities said that the woman it hit is the mother of at least one of the dead children, all of whom were under age 10. These children were killed senselessly. Of course, the suspect did not sustain life threatening injuries and the stolen motorcycle was recovered several blocks away from the scene of the accident. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims and to Latoya Smith, I pray for her speedy recovery.