Car accident yesterday takes the lives of two teenagers in Ogden. Blake Strebel, one of the victims of this incident, helped coach the Weber Lacrosse JV team. He had become good friends with my cousin and I have heard nothing but good about him. My heart goes out to the victims' families. What a tragedy.
On a more cynical note, please read the last part of this article about the individuals that ran from police.
The burglary
Police say two men were spotted burglarizing an Ogden home just before 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. Eyewitnesses gave police a license plate number and physical descriptions of the suspects and their car.
Throughout the day, police searched for that vehicle -- a white Cadillac.
Just after 10 p.m. that same day, an officer spotted the Cadillac in the same general area and tried to pull it over.
The driver, identified as 17-year-old Mark Mora, fled, leading officers on two minute pursuit.
"The Cadillac ran the stop light at 28th and Washington Boulevard and struck a northbound vehicle driven by the two victims," said Lt. Scott Sangberg.
Suspects' families speak out
The mother of Gomez and grandfather of Mora showed up outside of the Ogden police station Thursday morning to speak to the media. They claim no lives should have been lost and the chase should not have even happened.
"If the police had handled this in the intelligent way, it wouldn't have happened," Mora's grandfather, Eddie Mora, said.*What? These kids burglarized a house and are known gang members. Don't blame the police for trying to pull them over.
Gomez's mother, Stacey Mora, expressed her sorrow for the death of the two teens. She said, "I'm so sorry. I just can't imagine how my son feels, I mean, my heart goes out to them. I can't even express how I feel, what they're going through. I'm so sorry. If I could've done anything to change it, I would've."
Stacey says her son was not involved in a burglary and that he likely fled from police because he had been harassed by Ogden police officers in the past. [To hear more from the suspects' families, CLICK HERE.]
Police investigation
Police say both suspects are known gang members and have a lengthy criminal history. However, officers will not say if Mora and Gomez are the two wanted for the initial burglary.
The Utah Highway Patrol is heading up an investigation into the chase and the crash to determine exactly what happened.
The suspects are expected to face numerous charges dealing with reckless driving and vehicular homicide once they are released from the hospital.
5 comments:
That sucks Nate. I was afraid you guys would know them. Those people are worthless.
Really come on Mora & Gomez family....sounds like blaming someone else might make it feel better. Those maniac kids should be held accountable for sure!
That is terrible to try and blame someone else. The police weren't driving the car that hit the victims - how is anyone else responsible? Doesn't matter if they burglarized the house or not - If they would have just pulled over like **most** people do when they see flashing lights, then it wouldn't have happened. Simple as that. Such a sad ending.
Man I don't think I could be as Christian as those families. That pisses me off that the mom would blame police for her idiot son's mistakes. I hope at least the two boys will take resposibility for what they did and hopefully they will be put away for a while.
It's sad to see people act this way and cause such pain to a family. People need to own up that sometimes their kids aren't the perfect little angels that they think they are... And often times they are idiots because of the way they were brought up.
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