Original Article News Update Report: Police pursuit improper By Amanda Lee Myers, Tribune July 30, 2005 Scottsdale police violated their own pursuit policy in an April 7 chase that led to a fatal crash, states a report released Friday by the department. The report by the agencys Vehicle Operations Review Board says officers acted against policy when they pursued 22-year-old David J. Szymanski, who fled police by traveling the wrong way on Loop 101 in the early morning hours of April 7. Szymanskis Chevrolet Cavalier collided head-on with a Ford Escort carrying three people. Scottsdale resident Cody Brett Morrison, 22, died at the scene. Officers began chasing the Fountain Hills resident after responding to an assault call. But they should not have engaged in the pursuit because "it did not meet any reasonable police officer standard that the suspect was a threat to human life," wrote Lt. Frank OHalloran, one of the review boards seven members. "The pursuit was not within policy." Yet while some officers violated procedure in the pursuit, their actions did not force Szymanski to drive against traffic on the freeway, and "time was too short to do more than the officers did" to prevent the collision, OHalloran wrote. Police procedures state that pursuits are permissible only if the suspect has committed a violent or dangerous felony or if "an immediate and articulable threat to human life exists," department records state. "The level of suspected crime did not raise the level of apprehension to pursuit," OHalloran wrote. Morrisons family felt relieved that the report finally confirmed what they had suspected all along, said Matthew Wright, the Morrisons attorney. "It certainly has brought some relief to my clients, who have lost their only son," he said. "It answers questions my clients wanted answered." Wright said filing a lawsuit against the police was a "definite possibility" and the decision to do so would be made "in the near future." "Certainly, you can glean from this report that the pursuit in the first place was inadvisable," he said. The report referred to specific officers who should have ended the pursuit when Szymanski ran through at least eight traffic lights at speeds in excess of 60 mph before he entered Loop 101. Lt. Todd Muilenberg, Sgt. Dan Rincon, Sgt. Rob Ryan and officer Carrie Candler were named as either conducting a pursuit not within policy or failing to supervise the pursuit as expected. In interviews with the review board, some of the officers said the incident was not a pursuit, according to the report. The report states the officers "should have recognized that the incident was a pursuit that was not within policy" and "should have terminated it." Supervisors have not decided whether to reprimand the officers. The report also made several recommendations for the department to alter wording in pursuit policy and improve procedural practices to avoid a fatal pursuit in the future. These include providing training to patrol officers and supervisors on how to properly respond to vehicles traveling in the opposite direction on freeways. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is seeking the death penalty against Szymanski, whose first-degree murder trial is in October. Contact Amanda Lee Myers by telephone at (480) 970-2330.