Roques, 20, is one of the victims in the crash. His family, along with the relatives of 22-year-old Dexter Sewell, says the crash left both men permanently brain damaged, disabled and unable to take care of themselves or their small children.
"It's like re-living with a child all over again at a point in my life and his life, also. I'll be taking care of him for the rest of his life," Sewell's mother, Tamika Sewell, said. They accuse police of putting their loved ones in harm's way by stopping their car as part of a nighttime roadblock on the blind side of an overpass. The families are now suing HPD's police chief, the city of Houston, Harris County and the law officers involved. "What it amounted to is a betrayal of trust that we place in our police officers to protect people in this community," attorney Michael Callahan said. They're asking for in excess of $50 million to cover mounting medical costs and demanding better training and supervision of roadblock practices. Houston City Attorney David Feldman insists the Houston police officers involved followed procedure and maintains there's no way that authorities could have anticipated the driver's actions. "It's obviously extremely unfortunate that this suspect, instead of going through clear lanes of traffic, rammed into parked vehicles, and that's how the accident occurred," Feldman said. Despite the allegations detailed in the lawsuit, the Houston Police Department isn't planning on revisiting its policy regarding police chases. Feldman says he doesn't believe this case warrants another review of HPD's controversial chase policy."The policies and procedures HPD follows are consistent with the best practices followed by law enforcement agencies around the country," he said.
