Multiple sources are reporting that police in Menifee responded to a report of a burglary in progress on the 27000 block of Hemingway Court around 4:54 pm Monday.
A car driven by a woman believed to be involved in the burglary was seen leaving the area, and fled when the cops attempted to pull her over.
The driver was headed west on Holland Road at a high rate of speed when she ran the red light at Holland and Evans Road, striking the boy, who was riding north on Evans Road.
The victim, identified as 13-year-old Menifee resident Cody Villatoro, died at the scene, despite the efforts of police and paramedics.
The driver continued to flee until her car became disabled, at which point police arrested the woman, 21-year old Temecula resident Melody Valdez, on suspicion of evading police and homicide, among other charges.
So let’s repeat. Villatoro was riding with the green light, and apparently did nothing wrong other than share the planet with a driver wanted by police for a nonviolent property crime. But now he’s dead, because of a driver’s bad decision to flee and the cops’ choice to continue the chase.##
20 Comments
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus · 15 pts · 2d
Why are the police getting into Fast & Furious chases for fucking non violent crimes?
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 2d
They’re full of insecurity and they couldn’t beat their wives at the time
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · 3 pts · 2d
Tbh id want to know how long the time period was between when they first tried to pull her card and when she hit the boy. If they had just tried to pull her over a second before, and then she took off at high speed then they wouldnt have actually been chasing her for a minor crime. It would just be her fleeing. Then at that point she hits the boy, which obviously they would actually chase her for
I could see that being the case pretty easily, but it doesnt make for as juicy of an ACAB story
Edit: looking at maps it would seem that is exactly what happened. The crime occurred, she was on Holland or Bradley when the cop tried to pull her, and then one or two blocks later she smokes the kid. Then actually got chased for that, not for the property crime
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus · 0 pts · 2d
Its wild no one told you to jump through these mental hoops to justify the actions of cops and yet you still did it.
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · 2 pts · 2d
It doesnt make any sense because the story is fabricated. Cops dont chase people for minor property crime, especially when they know exactly what vehicle they are in and where that vehicle is registered.
The story is bullshit and made to make it sound like they were chasing her for 10 minutes over a nothingburger crime when she hit the kid. Which is bullshit. Accept it or not. I dont like cops, but I also dont like people who let their hatred of one thing or another get in the way of actual logic and reason in assessing some situation.
The cops dont have control over someone fleeing. What were they supposed to do? Just not try to pull her over after she burglarized a house? They have control over not chasing her, which it reasonably seems like they didnt until AFTER she killed a child. That entire length of Bradley/Holland before she hit the kid could be driven in less than a minute at the speed limit. It would be a manner of seconds at 60-80+mph
Grow up
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus · -1 pts · 2d
Its not bullshit. Cops chased a woman unnecessarily and that lead to the death of a child. If anyone needs their opinions rearranged on the matter its not the person who thinks this isnt worth the life of another human.
The fucking story
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · 2 pts · 2d
I get that youre one of those people who doesn’t give a shit about the actual facts of the situation and wouldnt change your mind regardless, but Ill make the point even clearer anyways.
The distance between the house that was robbed and the intersection where she hit the kid is 1.2 miles driving. We dont know if she was already driving recklessly and fleeing the scene before the cops arrived, which is entirely possible. But lets be generous and assume that she was driving the speed limit until the cops tried to pull her over
We know they did that away from the street where the crime was committed. Again we can be generous and say it happened at the Huston/Bradley intersection. Thats 3/4s of the distance from the house to the intersection. If she was driving 45mph until that point, it would have taken her like 40 seconds. If she then took off up to 80+mph, she would have been going 1.3mi per minute, and would have closed the remaining 0.5miles in around 20 seconds. Again we made some very generous assumptions that could have been incorrect, and the time could have been far shorter.
20 seconds is hardly enough time for a chase to have even been initiated. It’s hardly enough time for the driver to decide to stop fleeing or realize the cops backed off if they did. I dont understand how youre so certain that this article is not a very sensationalized portrayal of the events that occurred. The events are certainly not as the article implies that they are at the very least. At most she could have hit the kid like 2 minutes after running out of the house. It probably was even less time than that
The irony in all this is that you probably wont even read this comment, meanwhile you accuse me of not caring about the situation. Obviously I care enough to have written this much about it, but I doubt you care to even think about it long enough to even consider what happened
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus · 0 pts · 2d
For all those paragraphs you sure dont read. We know she sped off when the cops tried to pull her over. It says so right fucken here in the linked article. You are just making excuses for cops being fuccen stupid.
AviAdi@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Who is more evil? The cops that tried to pull this woman over or the woman who killed the kid then dragged his body and still didn't stop?
seathru@quokk.au · -1 pts · 2d
There's your bullshit. Roll a stop sign in front of a cop and then refuse to stop. You think they're just going to take your tag number, pull back over in the next parking lot, and go back to paperwork?
Malica@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 2d
Vibe policing
disregardable@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 2d
That's awful. Barely not a child herself and she has to live with that for the rest of her life.
foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 18h
Jesus. I can't imagine having murdered someone at that age. I mean obviously it'd wreck me at any age, but I didn't have any kind of coping skills or support system at 21 and if she's trying to rob houses then I can't imagine she does, either.
It's a tragic situation all around. I wish we had better options for handling crimes like these so that maybe this could have been avoided.
AviAdi@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1d
reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 2d
foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 18h
I see some folks discussing the role cops had in this awful situation, whether chasing or not chasing could have prevented the death of the little boy. I'd like to draw attention to another idea, though - the idea that this could have been prevented at the root. Why was a 21-year-old trying to rob a house? If she's struggling for money, then we need stronger supports so that people like her aren't placed in a position of needing to commit a burglary to stay afloat. If she has some kind of mental struggle, then she needed mental health support, therapy, etc. If she did it just because she's 21 and thought it'd be fun, why does she think that way? What need or lack was she trying to remedy by doing a crime?
The whole system is corrupted through and through. Let's consider how we can build new and better systems so that police aren't needed in the first place.
jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 4h
I don't think most people would want to live in a world without struggle, and theft is one of the simplest forms of struggle.