The family of a woman and child killed in what their attorneys describe as a “reckless and unreasonable” police pursuit in Rodeo last year filed a wrongful death lawsuit last week naming the driver, the city of Hercules and Contra Costa County as defendants.
Ryniqueka Dowell, 31, was driving at Parker Avenue and Fourth Street with her 6-year-old twins in the vehicle on March 23, 2023, when the driver of an allegedly stolen Mazda SUV ran a red light and crashed into them and fled on foot. Police set up a search perimeter, and Ralph Ellsworth White III was taken into custody shortly after.
Dowell died at the scene. Her two sons, Jamari and Jamani, were seriously injured. Jamari died four days later. Attorneys for Jeffrey Humble, Dowell’s husband and Jamari’s father, say a stolen car doesn’t justify risking the lives of bystanders to apprehend the driver.
“The best case scenario is you catch that person and you can arrest them. The worst case is you could kill a mother and her son,” Michael Haley said in an interview Friday on behalf of his clients.
“It is in no way just that a son and a husband lose their twin brother and their mom and their wife for this sort of thing,” Haley said.
According to the complaint filed Tuesday, the county Sheriff’s Office notified Hercules police of a possible stolen vehicle heading east on Interstate Highway 80 toward their city and an unidentified Hercules officer then pursued White off the highway at Willow Avenue.
“It is in no way just that a son and a husband lose their twin brother and their mom and their wife for this sort of thing.” Michael Haley, attorney for the victims’ family
The pursuit went into “densely populated residential areas and through multiple intersections and stop lights” before the collision, and the two deaths were a “direct and foreseeable consequence,” the lawsuit says.
Haley argues the pursuit demonstrated negligent training, hiring and supervision by Hercules police. He also alleges that it violated Hercules Police Department Policy 314.2.2, which currently states that a pursuit should be terminated whenever “the present risks of continuing the pursuit reasonably appear to outweigh the risks resulting from the suspect’s escape.”
It should be noted that Hercules police last updated their policy manual on April 19, 2023 – roughly a month after Dowell’s death — but it is not immediately clear whether policy 314.2.2 was revised at that time.
Jeffrey and Jamani Humble are suing for damages, and seeking to discover the names of the officers involved in the pursuit that led to the deaths of their family members.
White, now 21, was charged with two counts of murder for his role in the crash. He remains in custody at the Martinez Detention Facility on no-bail status and is scheduled to go to trial this September. His next court appearance is set for June 11 at the A.F. Bray Courthouse in Martinez.
Hercules’ city attorney and the Hercules Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. County counsel for Contra Costa County and a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.