3-year-old injured in Wilmington police chase 'will never be the same'

Meghan Stone-Kirts worries her 3-year-old son will never be the same after he sustained a traumatic brain injury last week when a Wilmington police chase ended in a crash.

The Baltimore family was on its way to New York City to see the Statue of Liberty when they intersected with a high-speed chase that resulted in a multi-car pileup on I-95 near Philadelphia International Airport.

Stone-Kirts, her husband, her brother Matthew and her children, 3-year-old David and now-2-year-old Sophia, were in the car.

David suffered several injuries in the crash, including the head injury, and has been at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia since.

"The traumatic brain injury means David's emotions will never be the same, his memory, him being able to talk, being able to control his emotions and his body fluids and walking," Stone-Kirts said.

He sometimes forgets the word "mom." Sometimes, she said, he forgets she is mom.

Wilmington police started the chase at E. 12th Street and Rosemont Avenue and north up I-495 then I-95.

They were after Dejuan Robinson, a 20-year-old tied to Wilmington's Touch Money Gang and wanted for questioning in murder cases, according to Police Chief Robert Tracy. They believed he was in the car that fled.

To date, he hasn't been caught. 

"Our officers initiated a pursuit of a suspect believed to be armed and dangerous," Wilmington police said. 

Wilmington police on Wednesday said that "the suspect vehicle rammed another motorist, which caused a collision with Wilmington officers." Wilmington police said the vehicle they chased later crashed into a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia.

Wilmington police haven't publicly updated that account since the investigation began.

Stone-Kirts said that's not how the crash happened.

"I've been reliving it in my nightmares," Stone-Kirts said. 

Stone-Kirts said the family finished their breakfast at the Denny's on Industrial Way by the airport, loaded up in the car and set the GPS for their hotel in New York City.

They merged onto I-95 north and got into the far left lane, she said. That's when a black SUV came up behind them on the shoulder, and it took off her driver's side mirror as it sped past.

A minute or two later, the police cars closed in, she said. 

Stone-Kirts said she tried to pull off the interstate, but before she could a black-and-white Wilmington police SUV smashed into her passenger side.

"Thirty seconds later, it was like a chain reaction," Stone-Kirts said.

Four different cars crashed into her after that, three more Wilmington police vehicles and one belonging to Pennsylvania State Police, who had joined the pursuit up I-95, she said.

"All I can do is pray to God the whole time and hold the steering wheel straight because I knew if I panicked and turned the wrong way my car was going to flip," she said.

After her vehicle came to a stop, Stone-Kirts kicked out the window on the driver's side and freed herself. She smelled gas, as she struggled to open doors so she could get her family out. 

She pulled her husband out first, then Sophia, then David, but her brother Matthew was stuck in the back seat.

She said it took minutes for police to come and check on them, but they helped get him out. Two Wilmington officers in a flipped car were injured and were hospitalized.

David was unconscious during the ambulance ride.

Her husband, an EMT, had a concussion and cuts on his body and head. Stone-Kirts, who has training as a nurse, said he has six broken ribs and a fractured shoulder. 

Matthew has fractured ribs, a concussion and a fractured neck with damage to his nose and face, Stone-Kirts said. She said he still can barely walk. 

Stone-Kirts said she hasn't had a full check-up since the crash. She said there wasn't time on Wednesday: she had to leave the rest of her family to go with David. 

"They came into the room saying, 'Your son is in serious critical condition. He is unstable. We are transporting him out,'" Stone-Kirts said. 

So she went with David to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. There, she learned David has fractured ribs, stomach issues, a spinal injury, 20-25 traumatic brain bleeds doctors are hoping will stop on their own, a skull broken in six places and the right side of his brain is hurt.

David had his third MRI Monday, and doctors said the crash hurt his hearing and vision.

"From the whole time this has started, no police officers have come up to check on us, they have not apologized or anything. The only thing they have done is harass us to get a statement and to get us to sign paperwork so they can tear apart our car," she said.

She said only one officer has called them to check up, an off-duty Pennsylvania trooper. 

Stone-Kirts said she was denied access to her car Monday, even to get her heart medicine and wallet from inside. She said Pennsylvania State Police didn't tell her why. 

She doesn't know when she'll be going home.

"We're hoping to find out how much eyesight he's lost, how much hearing he's lost," Stone-Kirts said. "We're hoping to get him transferred to home sometime this week."

Stone-Kirts said she wanted people to know how badly her family was hurt by what she sees as a misguided chase. She said police accounts of the crash aren't transparent.

"I understand you have a duty as a police officer to apprehend serious criminals for public safety, but policies and procedures need to be changed," she said. "There's too many accidents, too many lives and too many children being damaged, like my family, from these policies and procedures. Can they honestly tell us it was safe enough?"

Tracy said officers are allowed to chase felony suspects, even over state lines, but said the day after the pursuit that the chase would be reviewed to see if policy was followed.

Wilmington police referred questions about how the crash happened, including how many city police vehicles were involved, to Pennsylvania State Police, who are the investigating agency. That agency didn't return calls seeking comment.

Delaware State Police also led a chase up I-95 into Pennsylvania later last Wednesday, and that pursuit also ended in a crash. They were chasing a wrong-way driver suspected to have been intoxicated at the time. 

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics last year released a report on police chases which revealed an average of 355 people a year died in pursuit-related crashes between 1996 and 2015. Twenty-two of those pursuit deaths were in Delaware.

Pursuit policies across the country have become more restrictive over time, according to policing experts. Permission to chase suspects has become more tightly controlled because of the inherent dangers, often restricted to chasing violent offenders.

Tracy answered questions about the police chase Thursday and said Robinson "had a violent history with violation of probation" but didn't argue he was an immediate threat.

Stone-Kirts organized two GoFundMe pages to solicit help for her family medical bills. So far, those accounts only have raised several hundred dollars for the Kirts family. 

Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com

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