New York AG James won't file charges against cop who mowed down Bronx woman in 2020

NEW YORK — State Attorney General Letitia James will not pursue charges against a city police officer who struck and killed a 20-year-old Bronx woman in a caught-on-camera collision while trying to nab a speeding suspect, officials said.

Given the results of a thorough review, “a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that criminal charges are warranted” in the Oct. 5, 2020 crash, James said in her decision released Friday,

The decision comes amid renewed concerns that the New York Police Department — which last year decreed it was done letting suspects routinely speed away from police — is often too aggressive in chasing after vehicles.

Sofia Gomez Aguilon was on her way home from work when a marked police car, responding to an officer’s call for help, blew a red light and hit her in a crosswalk on Pelham Parkway South at Wallace Ave. in Allerton, cops said.

Medics rushed the Guatemalan immigrant to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition. She died three days later.

At the time, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the police cruiser, which had its sirens and turret lights activated, was going about 60 miles-per-hour when it rammed into the young woman.

“If you actually get into the car itself you can accelerate and decelerate in a short period of time pretty rapidly,” Shea said on NY1. “It’s just a tragic, tragic incident.”

The speeding cop was racing to help a colleague nab a motorist trying to evade arrest after he was clocked speeding 75 miles per hour on the Clearview Expressway near Northern Blvd. in Queens, authorities said.

The urgency of the situation ramped up after a report came over the radio saying shots were fired, although it was later “revealed that this transmission came from an unknown source,” the report notes.

The 23-year-old elusive motorist initially stopped for police but then hit the gas and zoomed away in his black Mercedes Benz across the Throggs Neck Bridge into the Bronx, police said.

He was zipping in and out of traffic at more than 100 miles per hour before cops caught up and charged him with reckless endangerment, unlawfully fleeing a police officer and driving on a suspended license.

According to New York law, a police officer who injures or kills someone while responding to an emergency in a marked vehicle cannot be charged with a crime “unless the officer acts recklessly or intentionally,” the AG report said.

“While the officer is responsible for Ms. Gomez’s death, the evidence does not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s conduct was a gross deviation of the standard that would have been observed by a reasonable officer in the same circumstances, or that the officer consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death,” the AG report said, noting that the cop slammed on the brakes after seeing Gomez.

“There was no evidence that the officer was impaired by drugs or alcohol, or was texting or on a phone call or otherwise distracted. Therefore (it was) concluded that there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges,” the report stated.

While this fatal crash happened more than four years ago, NYPD car chases have surged in the Adams administration as police try to curtail the use of ghost cars, which are vehicles with fake license plates, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said last year.

“People thinking they can take off on us — those days are over,” he said at a July 6, 2023, news conference.

While the policy shift has drawn criticism from police watchdogs who say the risks outweigh the potential upsides, the NYPD insists high-speed chases are sometimes necessary.

However, after getting strong criticism about police pursuits, the NYPD switched gears, implementing new policies in which supervisors must approve police pursuits based on a number of factors, including if the decision to pursue could harm the public.

Yet fatal police pursuits still occur, critics warn. On Oct. 22, an NYPD van was pursuing an escaping burglary suspect in Queens when the Dodge Ram they were chasing struck and killed bicyclist Amanda Servedio at 37th St. and 34th Ave, cops said.

Three people have been killed in NYPD pursuits this year, and many more have been injured, said Transportation Alternatives Co-Executive Director Elizabeth Adams.

Following the Gomez investigation, the Attorney General’s office recommended “every NYPD officer receive Emergency Vehicle Operator Course (EVOC) training once per year to prevent future collisions between police cars and civilians.”