Baltimore officials have agreed to pay $56,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that a police chase led to the death of a 22-year-old woman and injuries to an infant girl three years ago.
The city's Board of Estimates voted Wednesday to award the money to the family of Jordasha Rollins, who was killed April 16, 2012. Rollins was a passenger in a vehicle that was struck by a car driven by Charles Jeffries, who ran a red light in West Baltimore while fleeing from police, documents state.
As a result of the crash, Rollins died and her young daughter, Jadore, sustained minor injuries.
"It is alleged that prior to the collision, Baltimore police officers were in an unmarked police vehicle in pursuit of Jeffries for approximately six blocks, and that the police vehicle pushed Jeffries' vehicle from the rear through the red light, causing Jeffries' vehicle to strike Williams' vehicle," according to documents presented to the city spending panel. Rollins' family filed a lawsuit against the city seeking more than $6 million. That suit will be dropped under the settlement.
The crash occurred two weeks before Rollins was to celebrate her daughter's first birthday.
Police said at the time that Jeffries had been driving erratically in the 1700 block of Hilton St. and fled from an officer who tried to pull him over. Rollins and her mother were driving home from the store about 11:30 p.m. after a late-night run for food and diapers, relatives said. Jadore was in a child safety seat.
As Rollins crossed Poplar Grove Street at West North Avenue, authorities said, Jeffries' vehicle drove through a red light, smashing into the passenger side of her car and pushing it into the westbound lanes of North Avenue, where it was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
Relatives said Rollins' car folded up "like a piece of aluminum foil." Police said Rollins died from internal bleeding.
Rollins was a graduate of Frederick Douglass High School and a stay-at-home mother who was "a beautiful, fun-loving person," relatives said.
Police Department policy says officers are not to chase suspects except under "exigent circumstances."
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