State troopers pursued a stolen utility truck the wrong way on a Tulsa highway until the eluder rounded a curve in the glare of sunrise, barreling into and driving to work.
In another case, Oklahoma City police chased a stolen truck they were tracking via GPS signal until the eluder T-boned a vehicle in which a pregnant mother was traveling. were killed.
She had just dropped off her two other young children at school.
People are also reading…
Those two deadly pursuits that devastated families weren鈥檛 outliers among the two agencies that lead Oklahoma in the number of vehicle-pursuit deaths in the seven years examined by a Tulsa World and Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team investigation.
Throughout these stories, leading contemporary policing experts characterize the vast majority of these chases as unnecessary or not worth the risk.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol pursuits killed 20 people, including at least 10 individuals who weren鈥檛 the eluding drivers, from 2016 to 2022. Five of those killed were innocent motorists.
Oklahoma City Police Department pursuits killed 14 people. Six of those people weren鈥檛 the eluding drivers. Four were innocent motorists, and one was an unborn child, records reviewed in the investigation show.
The two large agencies headquartered in the capital city have reacted in opposite ways that might spur to action some lawmakers at the Capitol who have studied or regularly discussed pursuit issues.
In June 2022, Oklahoma City Police announced additional and tighter policy restrictions on vehicle pursuits. Meanwhile, the Highway Patrol went the other direction, removing all policy language in March 2024 that governed troopers who engage in chases.
Oklahoma City Police policy encourages officers to try to avoid vehicle chases because of the 鈥渆xtreme danger鈥 they create, reminding officers that 鈥渢heir basic responsibility is to protect the public.鈥
But the Highway Patrol erased policy language that had required troopers to 鈥減romote the safety of all persons鈥 during chases.
鈥淚t puts a bad taste in my mouth that we are not acknowledging that this is a thing at the highest level,鈥 said Rep. Ajay Pittman, D-Oklahoma City.
Pittman believes the Legislature should look at creating minimum standards to govern vehicle pursuits after the World and Lee presented her with the contrasting responses from the Highway Patrol and Oklahoma City Police.
Pittman said she sees no good that can come from the Highway Patrol removing so much pursuit policy 鈥 鈥渘ot a good look鈥 鈥 and is discouraged by the agency鈥檚 failure to lead by example. She is encouraged by the Oklahoma City Police Department鈥檚 evolution.
Pittman hosted a three years ago while on the Appropriations and Budget Public Safety Subcommittee.
It was personal.
One of her friends had suffered injuries when struck by an eluding driver鈥檚 vehicle in a police pursuit. And the aforementioned pregnant woman who was killed 鈥 Star Shells 鈥 had been a classmate of hers. Both were Oklahoma City Police chases.
Pursuits have caught the attention of some other lawmakers, too.
Stan May
There have been discussions among members of the Oklahoma House Public Safety and Judiciary committees about addressing chases in the state, according to Rep. Stan May, R-Broken Arrow.
May said he supports accountability through supervisory oversight and stringent guidelines that still respect discretion in chases.
鈥淗ow far the Legislature has to get involved 鈥 that鈥檚 going to kind of come down to how much (law enforcement agencies) are willing to do on their own, just like anything else,鈥 May said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 create laws just because we want to create laws. We do it because people refuse to do what鈥檚 right.鈥
The World and Lee investigation found the vast majority of the 68 fatal chases that killed 79 people from 2016 to 2022 were prompted by traffic infractions or property crimes.
About one in four deaths were innocent motorists, and about two in five deaths were people who weren鈥檛 the fleeing drivers.
The state secretary of public safety, Tricia Everest, didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment for this article. Nor did Tim Tipton, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, who also oversees the Highway Patrol.
Angelo Brown
Angelo Brown, an Arkansas State University criminology researcher and professor, said the pursuit problem is a unique situation in the U.S. that should be addressed in two key ways.
One is restricting high-speed pursuits to rare cases in which there has been a violent crime and the suspect is an imminent threat to the public. The other is bolstering chase training.
For example, Brown said, police in the United Kingdom dedicate 15 weeks to pursuit-related training. He said many academies in the United States schedule less than a week for it, and some have entire academies that last only 15 weeks.
鈥淚f they do this deadly tactic, there should be a lot, a lot of training to it,鈥 Brown said. 鈥淎nd I just don鈥檛 see that when I look at the curriculum at the academies.鈥
鈥楾oo broken to breathe鈥
The World and Lee found that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol had the most fatal chases in the state 鈥 16 that were identified 鈥 in the seven years examined.
The Oklahoma City Police Department was second with 12 deadly pursuits.
The next closest agencies had two fatal pursuits each: Tulsa Police Department, Lawton Police Department, Sperry Police Department and the Custer County Sheriff鈥檚 Office. Another 33 agencies lead or shared lead roles in one deadly chase apiece.
鈥淪o those numbers are alarming for someone who literally had to hear the gut-wrenching story of a wife detail how her husband was decapitated in a high-speed police chase 鈥 and he was not the perpetrator, right?鈥 Pittman said. 鈥淭hat is gut-wrenching to hear, and we鈥檝e had other families in our state experience situations like that.鈥
Melissa Bruckman鈥檚 husband, William Bruckman, was killed during a pursuit on U.S. 75 when he was hit head-on by a stolen ONG truck that was pursued by several law enforcement agencies including the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Pittman鈥檚 comment referred to Melissa Bruckman鈥檚 tearful testimony before the House Public Safety Committee during the .
Jerry Lee Newman crumpled her husband鈥檚 sedan on U.S. 75 in Tulsa after a half-hour high-speed police chase in the utility truck that Newman had stolen that morning. William Bruckman, 23, was killed instantly while on his way to work.
An apparent Highway Patrol supervisor the eluder the wrong way in highway traffic. But they had already done so for nearly two minutes while passing about 30 oncoming vehicles.
Moments after the warning, the horrific crash happened. No troopers were disciplined.
Melissa Bruckman recalled how the coroner placed her husband鈥檚 body in a turtleneck to cover wounds when she went to identify his remains.
She described the wonderful whirlwind when they first began dating after years of friendship. A few weeks later, they moved in together and became the 鈥渟tupid, ideal, perfect Berry Hill family鈥 with her two children.
Lilly, the daughter they later had together, was 18 months old when William died.
鈥淗ow do you explain to somebody that half of your life was ripped away? That your soulmate was ripped away? That a piece of you was gone?鈥 Bruckman told the House committee. 鈥淎nd now not only did you have to be the mother you were already being, but now you needed to be the father too.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e too broken to breathe. You鈥檙e too broken to work. You鈥檙e too broken to move. But you have three children, so you have to.鈥
Pittman, who is entering her third term representing House District 99 in Oklahoma City, said she is fond of state troopers.
She grew up among troopers in the Capitol, with her mother being an elected official. And troopers helped Pittman on the roadside when she was out of gas.
But the Highway Patrol鈥檚 erasure of its pursuit policy creates a lack of accountability and is a disservice to families who have been or will be harmed by chases, she said.
鈥淚 love them. I respect them. But I also have to say right is right and wrong is wrong,鈥 Pittman said. 鈥淎nd as someone who鈥檚 worked on this issue and would love their partnership in it, I think this is not right.鈥
Pittman applauded OCPD for how it is evolving. She suggested its updated policy could be a framework from which to develop a legislative minimum criteria for all Oklahoma law enforcement agencies.
鈥淚 think that if we know it鈥檚 an issue, and we鈥檙e looking at the data, and it鈥檚 something that we have the power to say, 鈥楬ey, we want this statute across the board. If you guys are not going to do it yourselves, we want to make sure it gets done,鈥 then absolutely, the Legislature should step in,鈥 Pittman said.
鈥楨ntirely unnecessary鈥 deadly chase
Public records paint an unsettling picture of the police pursuit that killed an innocent motorist and her unborn baby in 2021.
Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Dustin Fulton praised his own driving technique after Wacey Gerron Mikles slammed a stolen Ford F-350 pickup truck into a 2009 Chevrolet Impala, according to body-cam video.
In a state ranked 8th highest for pursuit-related deaths, traffic infractions or property crimes prompted the vast majority of chases 鈥 reasons not worth deaths or even pursuits, experts say.
Nearby, Star Shells and her unborn baby, Elijah Reeves III, lay dying or dead in the Impala. Mikles was in handcuffs.
鈥淚 did so good shuffle steering,鈥 Fulton was heard saying on body-cam video.
Another officer congratulated him with a fist bump: 鈥淕ood job bro.鈥
Fulton replied, 鈥淒id you like it?鈥
A wrongful death civil rights lawsuit against the City of Oklahoma City argues the pursuit was 鈥渆ntirely unnecessary鈥 because the stolen truck鈥檚 owner could track its location on his phone and was providing real-time updates to police.
Cameron Spradling, the plaintiff鈥檚 attorney, wrote that officers needlessly pursued the fleeing suspect at high speeds over considerable distances through highly populated and trafficked areas.
鈥淭he decision to engage in this police chase constitutes a conscience-shocking deliberate indifference to the rights of other motorists, including Star Shells and her unborn child,鈥 Spradling wrote.
The World and Lee identified at least three deadly pursuits from 2016 to 2022 in which law enforcement were electronically tracking vehicles but still decided to give chase instead of using that information to try to avoid such a high-stakes enforcement action.
The Oklahoma City Police Department鈥檚 updated policy requires officers to discontinue a chase for traffic offenses or property crimes under several conditions 鈥 specifically when GPS tracking is available. Others prohibitions to police pursuits include when police are entering active school or construction zones, approaching adverse road conditions or pedestrian traffic, when the violator鈥檚 identity is known or when the suspect鈥檚 driving behavior endangers the public.
Its officers also aren鈥檛 allowed to exceed city street speed limits by more than 15 mph or highway speed limits by more than 25 mph 鈥 unless there is 鈥渟trong justification,鈥 such as the threat of 鈥渋mminent loss of life or officer distress.鈥
Meanwhile, the prior Highway Patrol chase policy 鈥 before the agency removed 80% of it 鈥 still didn鈥檛 put many restrictions on troopers in chases, instead leaving most decisions to the individual troopers in the heat of the moment.
The agency actually listed traffic offenses and stolen vehicles specifically as reasons to chase. Its previous policy imposed no caps on speeds.
William Bruckman, 23, died when a stolen utility truck driven by Jerry Lee Newman plowed head on into his sedan as Bruckman commuted to work on U.S. 75 in Tulsa on May 24, 2017. Newman was fleeing law enforcement, bringing the pursuit into the wrong direction of traffic on the highway.
Policy changes lead to fewer pursuits
The Highway Patrol in the past has acknowledged to the Tulsa World that it doesn鈥檛 track or keep aggregate data on pursuits.
The agency refused to say for this story whether that has changed.
On the other hand, Oklahoma City Police track some data on chases.
It shows that their stronger policy measures implemented in June 2022 鈥 about 13 months after Shells and her unborn child were killed 鈥 are helping.
Oklahoma City Police averaged 334 pursuits per year in the four years prior to the new policy and 243 per year in the two years since.
And a higher percentage of its chases are being self-terminated by officers.
About 36% were discontinued prior to the new policy, rising to 45% afterward.
鈥淚 think it highlights how much better we鈥檝e gotten over the past five years at calling off pursuits,鈥 wrote Master Sgt. Gary Knight in an email. 鈥淎s you see, some years it鈥檚 almost half of all our pursuits.鈥
Ron Bacy, Oklahoma City鈥檚 new police chief, declined to be interviewed for this article. Wade Gourley, who retired from the post in August, was a driving force behind revamping the department鈥檚 pursuit protocols.
Knight wrote that the onus is on Oklahoma City Police to identify and apprehend criminals as safely as possible.
鈥淗istory has borne out that pursuits, although sometimes necessary, are inherently dangerous and sometimes have tragic and catastrophic outcomes,鈥 Knight wrote. 鈥淥ur stringent policies and procedures regarding pursuits are best viewed as safeguards to protect the involved officers, the fleeing suspects and the public at large.鈥
Corey Jones of Tulsa is a member of Lee Enterprises’ Public Service Journalism Team. corey.jones@lee.net
