Oakland Watchdogs Say CHP Should Follow OPD Pursuit Policy After Deadly Crash

The California Highway Patrol has released video footage showing the high-speed police chase that caused the death of an Oakland teacher and reinvigorated debates surrounding pursuits and the state agency’s presence in the city last month.

The newly-released aerial footage shows suspect Eric Scott Hernandez-Garcia, 18, driving at dangerous speeds while fleeing CHP through the city’s streets during a chase that activists from the Anti Police Terror Project called “reckless.”

The organization, which said it works to eradicate police fear in communities of color, will rally Thursday to demand that highway patrol follow Oakland’s police pursuit policy, and that the city’s police commission reject a recent proposal by the city’s police chief to repeal it.

“Every year, police high-speed chases kill more people than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. They don’t solve crime and they don’t prevent crime,” said Cat Brooks, the executive director of APTP. “It’s exhausting, we keep doing the same thing over and over, and now we have a police chief … that wants to roll back the very loose regulations that we have.”

During the pursuit, Hernandez-Garcia crashed twice, first ramming into the front of a minivan and, seconds later, skidding onto an East Oakland sidewalk, hitting a fire hydrant, a parked car and two pedestrians, including Castlemont High School teacher Marvin Boomer, who died on the scene.

The footage showed his car travelling about 80 miles per hour when he crashed.

The four-minute video compilation showed CHP officers first attempting to pull over Hernandez-Garcia, whose vehicle was wanted in association with a felony evading incident by the Alameda County Sheriff’s office, in a parking lot near 102nd Avenue and International Avenue around 7:30 p.m.

He fled, and the two-man police team pursued him. After about 30 seconds, they halted their chase after losing sight of Hernandez-Garcia due to the “reckless manner” of his driving, according to Shawna Pacheco, an assistant chief with CHP’s Golden Gate division.

An aerial team continued to follow Hernandez-Garcia as he weaved through residential streets and on and off Highway 880 at speeds topping 90 miles per hour for the next 13 minutes.

Eventually, the video showed him parking on the 1800 block of Fifth Street. Officers once again tried to apprehend him, but Hernandez-Garcia drove away in the vehicle.

The two CHP officers resumed their vehicle pursuit, following him through more residential roads in East Oakland.

About 22 seconds later, the video showed Hernandez-Garcia crashing into a minivan while turning onto 21st Street, which caused minor injuries to its passengers.

The CHP vehicle stopped its pursuit at the site of that incident, the video shows, while Hernandez-Garcia continued, picking up speed for another 20 seconds before he appeared to lose control of the car while barrelling between two parked vehicles just before the intersection of 12th and 21st streets. The car skidded onto the sidewalk and hit Boomer and his partner, Oakland resident Nina Woodruff.

Boomer was pronounced dead at the scene, and Woodruff was transported to a local hospital with multiple injuries.

The incident came just as Oakland’s police commission has been tasked with reviewing the city’s pursuit policy, which restricts chases when a suspect is not putting themselves or others in imminent danger and limits police vehicles in pursuits on residential streets to traveling under 50 miles per hour.

In May, OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell requested that the commission further relax the policy, which he said “deviates from national best practice,” by eliminating the requirement that chasing officers gain approval to travel above 50 miles per hour. Brooks said the policy, even as it stands, is “loose,” and still allows officers to engage in chases, including at high speeds.

She believes restrictions should be placed on the risky missions, which some policing experts have said do little to lower crime.

“If a chase on residential streets is going above 50 miles an hour, the logical thing to do is stop,” Brooks said. “You have the driver’s license plate, right? … Stop. Unless somebody has seriously hurt themselves or somebody else, [the car is] a piece of property,” she said, referring to the allegedly stolen car driven by Hernandez-Garcia.

“It’s an inanimate object and your pursuit of that inanimate objective is costing people their lives.”

APTP and other advocacy groups, including Communities United for Restoring Justice, Urban Peace Movement and the Ella Baker Center, are also calling for the removal of the 120 CHP officers Gov. Gavin Newsom dispatched to Oakland last February.

As long as the officers — who were sent to assist with traffic enforcement, sideshows prevention and recovering stolen cars — remain, the groups are requesting that they follow the city’s pursuit policy, which does not apply to their agency.

“We want Gavin Newsom to immediately withdraw the 120 CHP officers that he flooded the city of Oakland with that have done nothing to lessen violent crime or carjackings but have done much harm to the community, including racial profiling,” Brooks said.