Family of innocent man killed during chase sues Monroeville police, chief, officers

Monroeville police Chief Kenneth D. “Doug” Cole was at a high school football game two years ago listening on the radio as his officers chased a man wanted for fleeing and assault.

Jack Sherwood had already eluded police a few days earlier.

Cole thought about calling off the chase, according to police body camera footage released this week by attorneys. The officers knew Sherwood and where he lived.

But Cole didn’t terminate the pursuit, and an innocent man named Luis Hernandez died when Sherwood’s car struck him in Wilkinsburg as he rode a minibike.

Now, Hernandez’s family is suing Cole, the department and the officers involved.

The plaintiffs include Hernandez’s mother, Nilda Roque, and his aunt, Evelyn Hernandez, as administrators of his estate. The victim was a 38-year old single father of three children ranging in age from 10 to 15.

The named defendants are Cole; Cpl. Chad Hoffner; Sgt. James MacDonald; and Officers Brian Frank and Kevin Persichetti.

Cole said on Wednesday that neither he nor the borough solicitor had any comment on the case, which was initially filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court and moved earlier this month to federal court in Pittsburgh.

The lawsuit includes claims for wrongful death, due process violations, negligence and reckless disregard of safety. Hernandez’s family is seeking monetary damages.

According to the plaintiffs, the police never should have been chasing Sherwood in the first place. They also accuse the department of failing to have a proper pursuit policy.

107-mph pursuit

Hernandez was driving a minibike home from work about 8 p.m. on Aug. 26, 2022, when he was struck at the intersection of William Penn Highway and Graham Boulevard in Wilkinsburg.

He died a short time later at UPMC Mercy.

According to the complaint, Sherwood was driving a blue Ford Escape just before 8 p.m. when for unspecified reasons he triggered license plate readers that alerted police. Hoffner, the Monroeville police corporal, located the SUV and started to follow it.

Another officer informed him that Sherwood had fled a traffic stop a few days earlier.

About two minutes after police received the alert, Hoffner tried to pull Sherwood over at Monroeville Boulevard and Pike Place.

Sherwood made a U-turn and sped off, with Hoffner in pursuit.

Within a minute, the lawsuit said, MacDonald, Frank and Persichetti joined the chase in their own marked police cars. They reached speeds of 107 miles per hour.

The officers, the plaintiffs contend, should have known of the dangers the high-speed pursuit posed to other drivers and pedestrians on a Friday evening in a suburban community.

The road where Hernandez was struck, the lawsuit said, had a speed limit of 35 mph.

Within five minutes, Sherwood ran a red light and struck Hernandez while going 62 mph, the lawsuit said.

Sherwood kept driving, but Monroeville police ended the chase at 8:02 p.m. so they could help Hernandez. He was in excruciating pain, the lawsuit said and body camera footage showed.

Officers found Sherwood about two hours later. He tried to flee again and run over an officer. Police shot Sherwood in the arm and arrested him.

Meeting the standard?

Sherwood, 50, of Wilkinsburg, who has an extensive history of mental illness, pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault of an officer in November. He was ordered to serve 17 to 34 years in state prison.

The lawsuit alleges that, under Pennsylvania law, police departments are required to develop and implement a written pursuit policy, including when to chase, when to terminate and what tactics to use.

Such a policy, the lawsuit alleges, would have prohibited the officers from chasing Sherwood over the charges he was facing.

The lawyers claim that Monroeville’s pursuit policy fails to meet the standard of model policies.

“The police officer defendants had no reason to believe that their decision to pursue Sherwood was necessary to prevent the death or serious bodily injury of another person, as would be required by an adequate police pursuit policy,” the lawsuit said.

Further, it continued, the officer knew — or should have known — Sherwood’s identity and address, meaning they could have arrested him at a later date.

‘Pretty lenient’ policy

On Wednesday, Robert Daley, an attorney representing the Hernandez family, shared two video clips taken that night by officers’ body-worn cameras.

In the first, several police officers stood around comparing their departments’ pursuit policies.

A Churchill officer asks Monroeville’s Frank if his department has one.

“Their pursuit policy is pretty lenient, comparatively speaking,” Frank answered.

Frank then told the Churchill officer that Sherwood had fled a traffic stop a couple of days earlier

“Chased him for a good five minutes into Wilkinsburg and then we lost him,” Frank said.

In the second clip, Cole, the police chief, tells an officer on scene he’d heard the chase on the radio.

“Listening to the pursuit, I thought about trying to call you guys off,” Cole said.

“I thought about it, too,” the officer responded. “I mean for the most part until we got to this part, it wasn’t terrible in traffic.”