SAVANNAH, Ga. — The family of a 70-year-old woman who was killed in 2016 during a high-speed police chase in Savannah was awarded $3.5 million by a jury on Thursday.
According to court records from a lawsuit filed by the family of Bernitha Vaughn, the family matriarch was heading home after church and shopping at the grocery store when she was hit in a high-speed collision and killed.
The family sued due to the circumstances of the chase, where multiple law enforcement agencies were pursuing a suspected drug dealer at high speeds in undercover police vehicles.
Court records containing a summary of events from the day Vaughn died say City of Savannah police “saw what they believed to be a suspected drug transaction” at a McDonald’s and followed the vehicle involved out of the parking lot.
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An officer said, according to court documents, that he’d seen a driver, Kareem Felder, without his seat belt on and used it as probable cause to perform a traffic stop. When uniformed officers ran the plates, it showed as being a rental car. Then “marked units deactivated their emergency lights/equipment and stated that unmarked nits attempted a ‘vehicle follow’ but lost sight of the vehicle.”
Later that night, a detective working an off-duty job saw the same car at a club and when he approached it, the driver left. Officers contacted “either” the rental company or the Savannah Airport and determined that Felder’s mother had rented the car, but did not “ascertain who rented the vehicle that evaded them twice” on March 4, 2016.
Days later, a detective with the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department’s Undercover Narcotics Investigation Team (UNIT) saw the same car, driven by Felder, and followed it to a car wash on Victory Drive.
The detective called for backup and two more undercover vehicles followed him to the car wash in an “attempt to corner Felder at hte car wash when they pulled in behind him and approached his vehicle with masks on and weapons drawn,” Felder testified in court, according to records from the lawsuit.
Videos and photographs available show parts of that interaction, where Felder “saw subjects approaching his vehicle and he fled the car wash.”
Over the next nearly quarter-hour, “at least 12 undercover UNIT” chased Felder in what they described as “rolling surveillance” up and down several streets with Felder driving nearly 70 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone.
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Felder provided testimony that he attempted to avoid the undercover vehicles he could see behind him as he sped and ignored stop signs and traffic lights, adding that the vehicles following him did the same during the chase.
One undercover officer was described by a witness as driving at “such a high rate of speed that the driver lost control, hit the curb, deflated their tire, chipped the concrete curbing and rim on the vehicle as it hit the curb” and had to be towed away after the incident.
Further court records state that “none of the undercover officers without lights or sirens were authorized by Georgia law” or Savannah’s own pursuit policies to speed, disobey traffic signs or control devices, without proper functioning emergency equipment, leading officers to be accused of negligence in the court case.
Eventually, Savannah police said “Vaughn was driving south on Harmon Street. Kareem Felder, 20, was driving west on Maupus Avenue. Felder struck Vaughn’s car, fatally injuring her on impact. Felder ran away from the scene. He was apprehended by SCMPD after a brief foot chase.” The Georgia State Patrol investigated the incident, police said.
In the aftermath of the 2016 crash, attorneys for Vaughn’s family and estate said “The Savannah police currently do not have written policies or procedures for when or how undercover police can conduct car chases, although the broader pursuit policy says that unmarked vehicles shall not engage in high-speed pursuits.”
A Chatham County grand jury awarded the family a $3.5 million verdict, saying the Savannah mayor and city aldermen were at fault, in combination with Felder.
Vaughn’s family was awarded $3 million for Vaughn’s full value of life, $14,397 for funeral and burial expenses and $500,000 for pain and suffering.
“The verdict was 37.5% ($1.3 million) against the City of Savannah for actions of its police officers that led to Vaughn’s death, and 62.5% (about $2.19 million) against Kareem Abdul Felder of Savannah, who previously pled guilty to vehicular homicide and hit and run,” attorneys said.
Discussing the verdict, attorneys for Vaughn’s estate said “We think it’s important that Savannah residents know their tax dollars are paying for this jury award.”
“It is our hope that the City of Savannah and Chatham County undercover narcotics teams will finally adopt written policies and procedures for that unit to protect the public and Savannah citizens. That effort is long overdue and derelict for those units not to have policies for undercover narcotics officers operating motor vehicles,” attorney Terry D. Jackson said.
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