As Video Surfaces, Worcester Police Add Details About Response To Fatal Crash

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester police Wednesday released new details about their response to a fatal weekend crash after a video began circulating on social media showing officers driving behind the vehicle and then turning away near the scene of the crash.

The video, shared on Facebook by relatives of one of the victims, shows the stolen SUV racing north along Main Street near Sycamore Street, followed about 10 seconds later by a Worcester police cruiser with its lights on. The cruiser stops for a moment and then makes a U-turn, appearing to head south on Main Street.

The SUV had been stolen earlier from Allston Street and was traveling at about 68 mph when it crashed near the intersection of Main and Chandler streets just before 10 p.m. The SUV hit two other cars that were waiting at a traffic light, but only the five teens in the SUV were injured.

A teen girl died at the scene, and a second teen was still in critical condition Wednesday. Three other teens were in stable condition, police said.

At a news conference at police headquarters Wednesday, Lt. Sean Murtha said police wanted to dispel "false narratives" related to the crash.

Murtha said the cruiser seen traveling behind the SUV was working on another call at the time. The officers were traveling to a parking lot to retrieve a cruiser left by another officer who had to ride in an ambulance after an assault unrelated to the crash. Murtha could not say where that cruiser was parked.

Two relatives of a teen injured in the crash appeared at the conference and questioned police. Tyrone Gamble and Erica Clay asked why the cruiser in the video turned away so close to where the crash happened, even when the video also shows people on the street running toward the crash scene.

Here's the video shared via Facebook on Wednesday:

Sgt. James Foley, a member of the department's Crash Reconstruction Unit, said that the stolen SUV was traveling about 100 feet per second and went around a bend in Main Street and down an incline, out of view of where the officers were at Sycamore Street. The officers also stopped to speak to a person who flagged them down about the speeding SUV.

Wednesday's news conference was the third update on the crash since the weekend. An initial statement by police on Sunday morning said an officer attempted to pursue the SUV around 9:30 p.m. after seeing it speeding along Main Street.

"Worcester police officers were in the area of Main St when they observed a stolen white SUV driving north on Main St at a very high rate of speed. An officer activated his blue lights and attempted to stop the vehicle, but backed off the pursuit when the vehicle refused to stop and began operating more erratically," the Sunday morning news release said.

A second update on Monday afternoon clarified that officers were driving down Main Street with their lights on for safety reasons, not because the officers were in a pursuit.

"Two Worcester Police officers were in the area of Main and May St assisting on an assault call at about 9:30 PM. As they were preparing to leave the scene approximately twenty minutes later, they pulled out into traffic on Main St with their overhead lights activated for traffic safety purposes," the Monday update said.

May Street is about 7/10ths of a mile south from where the fatal crash occurred.

"They observed the white SUV drive north on Main St at a high rate of speed. The officers decided not to pursue the vehicle, but called out with its description over the radio to be [be on the lookout]. It was later discovered that the vehicle was stolen from Allston Ave on the night of July 22nd, but officers were not aware of this at the time," the statement from Monday continued.

Gamble said it was "questionable" if the police were actually pursuing the SUV, or were only coincidentally nearby.

"We're not making any assumptions," Gamble said after the news conference. "We don't have all the video."

A candlelight vigil for the teens killed and injured in the incident will be held Saturday at 7 p.m. near the scene of the crash at 627 Main St.