Mother of two children killed in California police pursuit files negligence lawsuit

The mother of two boys killed during a San Diego police vehicle pursuit filed a lawsuit last week alleging negligence on behalf of the department and the officers involved.

Malikai, 8, and Mason Orozco-Romero, 4, were killed Dec. 8, 2023, when a BMW allegedly driven by Angel Velasquez Salgado, 20, slammed into the car carrying the boys on an Interstate 805 onramp. The car went down an embankment and crashed into a tree, then caught fire. The boys’ mother, Victoria Hayes, and her front-seat passenger, Lisbeth Martinez, were severely injured.

At the time of the collision, San Diego police had been pursuing Salgado in a high-speed chase that began after officers attempted to pull him over for a bad headlight.

Salgado was arrested and charged with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter, hit and run, evading and driving without a license. He has pleaded not guilty.

In the complaint filed Tuesday in San Diego County Superior Court, lawyers for Hayes and Martinez allege that police “never should have engaged (Salgado) in a high speed chase and negligently failed to terminate the pursuit prior to causing harm and death to the public.”

The plaintiffs alleged that police “did not have good cause” to begin the pursuit in the first place.

“SDPD made an incorrect assumption that simply by virtue of his fleeing, Salgado was a serious criminal suspect,” the lawsuit states. “At the time of initiating and/or while continuing the pursuit, there was no need to protect the public from Salgado nor any apparent need to immediately capture him.”

Salgado is also named as a defendant in the suit.

The women are seeking unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

At an August preliminary hearing to determine if Salgado should face trial, Officer Jackson Carroll, who was driving the police vehicle involved in the chase, testified that the BMW made unsafe driving maneuvers such as swerving around other cars, speeding and driving on the shoulder and in a bus lane during the pursuit. Carroll said the driver was “actively attempting to evade us” and going faster than the officer’s 80 to 90 mph.

The deadly crash prompted the Commission on Police Practices to review the department’s policies on pursuits. In November the group presented its final recommendations, most notably that the department restrict pursuits so chases are not started for infractions or property offenses “unless other aggravation factors such as armed resistance are present.”

The commission pointed to data from more than 1,000 pursuits, which showed that around 60% of the chases began after a suspected infraction had occurred.

Nearly one out of every five pursuits resulted in a crash, with injuries arising in nearly 75% of those incidents, the commission found.

“Pursuits for misdemeanor offenses … should be rare unless there is clear evidence that the suspect poses an immediate danger to the public,” the commission wrote in its recommendations.

The San Diego Police Department is still in the middle of its 60-day review of the recommendations.

City News Service contributed to this report.