CHICAGO — A car fleeing a police traffic stop crashed into a vehicle on Chicago’s South Side, killing a 10-year-old girl and critically injuring her younger brother, police said.
Wednesday afternoon’s crash came as Da’Karia Spicer was riding with her father and 5-year-old brother, Dhaamir, to pick up a laptop at Foster Park Elementary School so she could start the school year there in 5th grade, the girl’s mother said.
Darnesha Johnson said she had called the children’s father not long before the crash to remind him to go to the school to get the laptop.
“Now I wish I would have just forgotten to call him, and that he would’ve forgotten and missed it,” she said.
Da’Karia was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital, where her brother was in critical condition, the Chicago Police Department said. The department released a statement Wednesday offering its condolences to the family and calling the crash a “devastating loss of life.”
Johnson said her daughter was a straight-A student who loved Girl Scouts.
“That was my little girl, that was my little best friend,” she said as tears rolled down her face.
Police said officers had tried to pull over a black Mercedes for a traffic violation about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Gresham neighborhood when the vehicle took off and crashed into a gray car and then into a tan sedan driven by Kevin Spicer, 43, the children’s father.
After the crash, three people got out of the Mercedes and ran, police said. Police did not release details on whether officers pursued the Mercedes for any distance.
Spicer and a 57-year-old woman who was driving the gray car were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, both in good condition.
Police said detectives were questioning a person of interest in the crash and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the crash.
