More people died in police chases in this Denver suburb than in the state’s biggest cities

For years Simone Pineda s twin sister spoke for her In elementary school teachers placed them in separate classes just so Simone had a chance to learn independently from her outgoing outspoken stubborn identical twin Simone was largely content in Savannah s shadow and when it came down to it Savannah usually followed her lead So when Simone desired to go live with their mother for the first time when the twins were Savannah agreed They moved into a home in Denver s Villa Park neighborhood where their mother pulled them into a life they d never known before fast money stolen cars drugs instability Their mother regularly kicked the twins out they never knew what would set her off When she put them out the twins would call around to sleep at a friend s house or they d steal a car and sleep in that One December day when the twins were Savannah and her boyfriend climbed into a stolen car after they d been kicked out They sat on top of buckled seatbelts and headed to a friend s house for the night Simone stayed home The boyfriend was behind the wheel He was on methamphetamine fentanyl marijuana When police lights flashed behind them he took off Deputies pursued Minutes later he ran a red light and T-boned a Westminster police car Savannah was killed Now more than three years later Simone is left speaking for her twin Don t get me wrong my sister made her mistakes she mentioned But I don t think she deserved to die for that I really just want Westminster to be held accountable The Westminster Police Department recorded wagon pursuits over the last five years more than twice as multiple chases as police recorded in Denver or in Aurora or in Colorado Springs according to content collected by The Denver Post on nearly police pursuits across of Colorado s the majority populous cities and four metro counties between and Across those cities and counties seven people died in pursuits over those five years Four of those deaths happened in Westminster For a jurisdiction to be that much smaller than Denver chasing at twice the rate and producing a disproportionate share of the bad outcomes that is a red flag reported Justin Nix a criminology professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha The Post examined the region s approach to police pursuits after the Aurora Police Department quietly broadened its procedures in October to allow officers to chase more individuals Aurora police officers long limited to pursuing only people suspected of dangerous felonies can now pursue people suspected of driving under the influence and drivers of stolen vehicles a move Chief Todd Chamberlain stated is necessary to curb crime Aurora s new protocol bucks the trend across the Front Range where the majority of law enforcement agencies included in The Post s review limit pursuits to situations in which the driver is suspected of a violent felony or poses an immediate menace of injury or death to others if not rapidly apprehended We are in the citizens safety business and pushing another driver to their limits in a college town with bicyclists and people walking all over the place that flies in the face of population safety revealed Jeff Swoboda police chief in Fort Collins where officers recorded just six pursuits in five years We regularly say Another day another way We will figure out other methods to go about capturing that person In Westminster where agenda allows officers to chase for anything but a traffic infraction Chief Norm Haubert declared pursuits are part of the job Officers there have pursued trespassing and shoplifting individuals drivers with fake or missing plates drivers suspected of being drunk or high Westminster police Chief Norm Haubert speaks during an interview at the police department in Westminster on Thursday March Photo by Hyoung Chang The Denver Post As the police chief I know that our neighborhood expects us to apprehend those that are disturbing our area and victimizing our region he announced And our region quite honestly is tired of being victimized And so it is a balance of how are we going to apprehend these offenders and hold them accountable Across police pursuits over the last five years of chases ended with at least one person injured the figures from the jurisdictions examined by The Post established At least people were hurt including individuals officers and bystanders and citizens according to information provided by the agencies In Denver where police engaged in pursuits about of chases ended in injury The Post revealed In Colorado Springs where police chased drivers times that number was The Post exposed But in Aurora with pursuits of chases resulted in injury a much higher rate than in similar jurisdictions The seven people killed in crashes during pursuits included two drivers four passengers in the fleeing bicycle and in Aurora a bystander The Post s count does not include people who were killed in police shootings promptly after pursuits Among those killed in pursuit crashes the oldest person was Savannah at was the youngest This crime scene photo from the Colorado State Patrol shows the aftermath of a fatal Westmister police pursuit at West nd Avenue and Harlan Street on Dec in which the -year-old driver of a stolen Kia Optima crashed into a Westminster police automobile killing -year-old Savannah Pineda who was a guest in the stolen car Photo courtesy of Colorado State Patrol Hundreds of pursuits Westminster s permissive pursuits plan paints a picture of how chases unfold when officers have broad discretion The agency recorded a automobile pursuit on average every five days over the last five years the details shows During a single seven-day span in January officers pursued a driver with a missing front plate the p m chase topped out at mph on Interstate a couple in a stolen Subaru mph on West th Avenue at p m a reckless driver mph on Federal Boulevard at a m and a pair of theft defendants mph at a m on West th Avenue None of those persons of interest were arrested Instead officers ended each of the pursuits when they deemed conditions were too dangerous to continue Officers called off the chases when the driver with a missing plate avoided a tire-deflation device and reached the interstate when the stolen Subaru neared a busy intersection at mph when the reckless driver started throwing items out a window at police and when the theft persons cut across three lanes of traffic ran a red light and started driving on the wrong side of the road Click to enlarge Haubert cited officers ability to end pursuits as an fundamental safety measure officers who terminate chases must right away pull over or make a U-turn he commented Once they get into a pursuit it is a constant balance of assessing the jeopardy factors and how this might affect the region if this continues versus the need to make that immediate apprehension he explained But The Post identified Westminster officers sometimes ended pursuits moments before crashes In January an officer following a suspect who drove away from a targeted traffic stop was informed to cancel the pursuit as the driver sped around mph or mph on Federal Boulevard As I began to slow down stop and turn around to drive in the opposite direction I saw a dust cloud erupt Officer Jesse Robinson wrote in a description The driver had crashed into another car Police published no one was hurt In May a Westminster police officer spotted a stolen truck in a motel parking lot on Mariposa Street around a m He followed the truck for a short distance until the driver started to speed up then the officer began a pursuit Other officers put out stop sticks a tire-deflation device and the truck hit the sticks at the intersection of th Avenue and Decatur Street The pursuit continued even as sparks flew from the truck s now-deflated front tire with the driver pushing to mph on Federal Boulevard The driver turned into a neighborhood and the truck s left tire flew off The driver kept going returning to Lowell Boulevard and increasing his speed The Westminster officer in pursuit wrote in a overview that he realized he should end the chase I decided to terminate the pursuit and began to slow down but before I could air that over the radio the wagon continued south on Lowell through a red light without slowing The van then hit a dip on the south side of nd Ave and appeared to become airborne Officer Tabe Skalla wrote in a summary Westminster police repeated the officer s claim that he was slowing down before the crash in a later news release but a subsequent research by the Colorado State Patrol revealed that the patrol cars were going at least mph when the truck crashed Officers arrived at the crash to find the driver -year-old Matthew Hesser dead His tourist -year-old Hope Ishak had been ejected from the truck and thrown into a retaining wall in front of Westminster Fire Station She was also dead These were kids reported Layla Gantz Hope s aunt It wasn t like they were professional criminals She was a young beautiful girl who got cheated out of graduating cheated out of prom cheated out of being a mom A family photo of Hope Ishak is projected onto a screen set up by the photographer near the intersection at nd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard in Westminster where she died after the bicycle she was in crashed during a pursuit by Westminster police on May Photo by RJ Sangosti The Denver Post What is your police agency s approach to pursuits Find it here Adams County Sheriff s Office Arapahoe County Sheriff s Office Arvada Police Department Aurora Police Department Boulder Police Department Broomfield Police Department Castle Rock Police Department Colorado Springs Police Department Denver Police Department Douglas County Sheriff s Office Fort Collins Police Department Greeley Police Department Jefferson County Sheriff s Office Lakewood Police Department Longmont Police Department Loveland Police Department Pueblo Police Department Thornton Police Department Westminster Police Department Hope had been in foster care in the custody of the Jefferson County Department of Human Services before the pursuit according to the Colorado State Patrol She d run away a sparse days before and was listed as a missing person when she died Autopsies indicated both she and Hesser had methamphetamine and other drugs in their systems and both had open warrants for their arrests the state patrol review determined After Hope s death Gantz started an online petition calling for Westminster to limit police pursuits City executives expressed condolences but did nothing else she stated They just think they are justified because they have a badge Gantz explained Every pursuit is methodically reviewed Haubert reported with layers of supervisors considering whether the officers acted within procedures what drove their decision-making and whether changes should be made going forward There is a system in place It s been in place for various years We hold the officers to a high standard he mentioned We hold them accountable but we also hold the supervisors and ourselves accountable making sure that they are adhering to the protocol understanding that our procedures is different than several of the other agencies Westminster police exposed officers acted within department program in all three of its fatal pursuits as well as in each of the January pursuits mentioned in this story No officers were disciplined in connection with those chases The police department hasn t identified any wider pattern of officers calling off pursuits too late the chief commented Officers can t control what happens after a pursuit ends he added Obviously up until that point we haven t been able to control what the suspect is doing he commented And when we disengage from the pursuit we still are not able to control what the suspect is doing So from there although horrifically tragic and tragic for our area and for the family the actions of that suspect are still out of our control Gantz still talks to Hope each morning even five years after her death she reported The teenager loved animals especially cats She was creative smart And she s missed Every Sunday Gantz watches an old video of Hope trilling Just Give Me a Reason by Pink I tell her I m sorry Gantz announced I m sorry nobody was there to protect her Layla Gantz holds a photo and the ashes of her niece Hope Ishak who died in a Westminster police pursuit in at age at Gantz s home in New Braunfels Texas on April Photo by Brenda Baz n Special to The Denver Post Nine seconds In Savannah s occurrence Westminster police officers ended their pursuit nine seconds before the fatal crash The pursuit started at Federal Boulevard and West th Avenue in Adams County when a sheriff s deputy ran the license plate for the Kia Optima that Savannah and her boyfriend were in and realized the car was stolen It was a m on Dec police records show The deputy followed the -year-olds as they drove north on Federal He didn t activate his urgency lights until they crossed under U S Then the deputy flashed his lights Savannah s boyfriend hit the gas speeding north on Federal Deputies put out stop sticks at Federal and West th Avenue and shredded the Kia s rear tire which sent sparks flying The deputies kept chasing as the boyfriend passed West nd Avenue traveling mph then swung west onto West th Avenue The Adams County sheriff s deputies ended their pursuit when the Kia reached Sheridan Boulevard the edge of their jurisdiction They turned off their lights and sirens but couldn t find a place to turn off and ended up following the automobile longer according to the Colorado State Patrol They saw Savannah s boyfriend turn on Westminster Boulevard and alerted Westminster police at a m A Westminster police officer spotted the bicycle minutes later at Pierce Street and West nd He pulled a U-turn to follow behind it The car slowed like it might stop The officer turned on his police lights at a m But seconds later the officer radioed that the Kia sped away that he d ended the pursuit was turning off his lights and pulling over Nine seconds after that Savannah s boyfriend ran a red light at about mph and slammed into a Westminster police car in the intersection of West nd and Harlan Street smashing the front of the police car and setting off the airbags The officer and a person doing a ride-along that night were both injured not seriously The Kia was crushed Savannah s boyfriend screamed at her to wake up Princess I m sorry he revealed according to a state patrol document An accident reconstruction summary shows how the driver of a stolen car crashed into a Westminster police car on Dec at the intersection of Harlan Street and West nd Avenue Savannah Pineda was killed Image courtesy of Colorado State Patrol A Westminster police news release about the crash later made no mention of the pursuit by Adams County deputies The department announced only that officers had learned the stolen car might be in the area then spotted it with a blown-out tire and hazard lights flashing Westminster police did not pursue the automobile the news release reported How Westminster counts pursuits Haubert Westminster s police chief thinks his department might have over-counted its pursuits Between and late the agency considered any affair in which an officer tried to stop a carriage and then followed it when it did not stop to be a pursuit he declared But in late or early the agency changed its internal approach to count incidents as pursuits only if the suspect driver made an overt act to avoid officers Haubert commented An example of that would be traffic officers running radar on the highway he mentioned They get a truck that s going miles an hour Traffic officer gets there they get behind them with their lights and sirens The van doesn t make an overt act to avoid the officer but they continue on at miles an hour Photos from the Colorado State Patrol show the wreckage of a truck driven by Matthew Hesser He and a visitor in the truck Hope Ishak died in a Westminster police pursuit in Images courtesy of Colorado State Patrol Before Westminster would consider that event to be a pursuit because the officer followed the suspect with their lights and sirens on he reported But now they would not count that as a pursuit but as an eluding or failure to yield because the driver did not make an overt act to avoid the stop the chief mentioned Westminster recorded pursuits in in in in and in for a total of pursuits records show Officers followed defendants for at least particular period of time in each of those incidents Haubert mentioned Whether we were behind them for five minutes or five seconds we explained that was a pursuit Haubert reported The department was unable to provide a breakdown of which of those pursuits might now be considered eludings Spokeswoman Samantha Spitz also could not provide a count of eluding incidents for any year except when she revealed the department recorded eludings Westminster s pursuits in is the same as the number of pursuits in Denver that year a jurisdiction nearly five times bigger geographically and with six times Westminster s population In Denver the city considers an matter to be an eluding when an officer attempts to stop a truck and the motorcycle takes off but the officer does not follow The city recorded eludings between and Officers carried out pursuits Thornton police recorded eludings across those five years and pursued times In Arvada a neighboring city to Westminster with a similar population the city recorded eludings between and spokesman Dave Snelling disclosed Arvada pursued those fleeing subjects just times over that four-year span The city limits its pursuits to situations in which the driver has committed is about to commit or is yearned for a violent felony the department s procedures shows A great percentage of them are going to be attempted traffic stops and we won t pursue for just a traffic violation Snelling reported Selected of those are stolen cars chosen are vehicles without license plates Westminster s much broader program for pursuits is constantly under review Haubert commented Looking back at the last five years he thinks officers struck the right balance between pursuits and community safety I think the answer in the present day is yes but that is something that we will continuously evaluate he reported Is this what is best for our public and for their safety and to apprehend those that are violating our population So yes at present But that is under constant scrutiny by us each day Aurora s new approach to pursuits In October the Aurora Police Department opened up its pursuits guidelines expanding it to allow officers to chase suspected drunken drivers and to remove a requirement that a felony cited to justify a chase must involve a threat or use of deadly force within the past hours The police department made no general announcements about the change at the time In March the department changed the protocol again to explicitly say officers could chase drivers in stolen vehicles This time the department publicized the change Police in Aurora can now pursue any suspected felon if the officer believes that person poses a serious danger to community safety if they are not right away apprehended and can chase drivers suspected of a crime involving a firearm that poses a serious threat of harm to the inhabitants Chamberlain the city s new police chief made the change even though of the agency s chases over the last five years resulted in injury or death more than double the rate in Denver and more than three times that of Colorado Springs The Post ascertained People were hurt in of the agency s chases according to evidence provided by police Aurora Police Department investigations Cmdr Marc Paolino answers questions regarding a police pursuit that occurred earlier in the morning during a press briefing at the Aurora Municipal Center on Wednesday March Photo by Eric Lutzens The Denver Post The Aurora Police Department took reports of injuries to persons reports of injuries to officers and four reports of bodily harm involving others during that time according to content provided by the agency One bystander Oliver Jose Zeledon Gongora was killed last year when a fleeing carjacking suspect crashed into his parked truck It s a huge threat doing pursuits Chamberlain revealed There s no getting around it But there s also that point of peril aversion and if you re so risk-averse to anything that you allow people to be victimized to me that s the predicament Chamberlain noted he weighed the rate of injuries and deaths resulting from pursuits before signing off on the procedures changes and noted that most of pursuits did not aftermath in injuries He hopes the threat of police chasing and arresting subjects particularly intoxicated drivers and car thieves will deter crime People know Hey I can just steal cars I can victimize people I can do all kinds of stuff and I can get away with it he mentioned of the department s prior protocol More than suspected stolen vehicles and drunken drivers have been communicated to Aurora police since according to the department In Fort Collins which had the fewest chases among the departments reviewed by The Post Chief Swoboda stated he wants his officers actions to match how the broader justice system handles an alleged crime like a stolen truck They re not getting large bonds they re not going to prison for this so the suggestion that somehow police need to be the ones to say this person necessities to be held accountable when the consequences aren t that severe we can t care more than the inhabitants he explained Families will be forever changed innocent people police officers are getting hurt and killed and for a charge that someone is going to get a bond and maybe neighborhood corrections He d rather see his officers recover a stolen automobile when it is parked or approach when the driver stops for gas or follow a van covertly until the driver gets out There s a safer way to go about it Swoboda disclosed Click to enlarge Police departments have started to use alternatives to pursuits like StarChase a system that lets police shoot a GPS tracker onto a car and track it remotely or the Grappler Police Bumper which the Colorado State Patrol uses to stop cars by entangling them in webbing Denver police used StarChase times between January and December a spokesman reported The agency pays for user licenses The state patrol used a Grappler times between August and March with profitable deployments Sgt Patrick Rice mentioned Snelling with the Arvada Police Department revealed officers discovered the StarChase system to be unreliable The GPS tracker often would not stick to the suspect car he declared or persons would discover the device stop and pull it off he disclosed Haubert disclosed he expects system will continue to improve and reduce the need for pursuits over the next decade That is another task that we have and a duty that we have to our district to make sure we are utilizing system to minimize the pitfall to our neighborhood he declared The idea that pursuits have a deterrent effect isn t backed by research noted Nix the professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha I don t think there s any good evidence that happens he explained In agencies that did move toward more restrictive policies the sky did not fall Rather Nix commented research has consistently shown that pursuits really don t justify the danger The Police Executive Research Forum a nonprofit organization that issues guidance for police departments recommends that pursuits only be authorized in the affair of violent crimes that indicate the suspect poses an immediate danger to the masses independent from their driving behavior while fleeing from police The practice of chasing drunk drivers is particularly controversial Among the agencies reviewed by The Post only Aurora and the Arapahoe County Sheriff s Office explicitly allow pursuits of suspected intoxicated drivers In Arapahoe County such pursuits are allowed only if the driver stays under the posted speed limit Swoboda reported pursuing impaired drivers doesn t make sense I ve heard it explained The only thing worse than a drunk driver is a drunk driver being chased by police he commented Someone who is already impaired there is increased vulnerability of them being in a crash and now they are going to be glued to the review mirror what is the expectation they are going to be able to safely drive that way Chamberlain argued officers have a responsibility to remove drunk and drug-impaired drivers from the road before they injure or kill someone I do think there s got to be various point where you say enough is enough he commented Where enough people have been injured enough people have been hurt enough people have been victimized and again if law enforcement doesn t do that intervention then who is going to do it Aurora s officers are trained to pursue safely the chief explained Officer recruits receive hours of driving training and hours of training on automobile stops contacts and searches during the department s academy activity which is roughly two times the amount of training required by the state police spokesman Matthew Longshore announced The academy also features four scenario days that include simulated pursuits and bus pursuits are among the topics of in-service trainings for officers after graduation The independent monitor who is overseeing court-ordered reforms at the Aurora Police Department cautioned in an April assessment that the new pursuit protocol will require officers to exercise sound judgment and restraint and that the broader procedures makes supervisor oversight even more critical The monitor recommended that all Aurora police cars be equipped with dashboard cameras so that pursuits can be documented in their entirety This isn t anything that I took lightly Chamberlain announced I really didn t and I mean that sincerely from my heart I see a department that s controlled I see a department that understood the initiative I see a department that could weigh the pitfall as opposed to the value of getting somebody Stolen wagon pursuits Amanda Hernandez-Torres mentioned she made sure everyone knew the Chevrolet Cavalier was stolen before she let her three passengers get inside on Jan She sped away when Westminster officers tried to pull her over just before a m that night The officers knew the car worth about was stolen and connected to an armed robbery that had happened in Denver a scant days earlier Hernandez-Torres drove through an officer s attempted Precision Immobilization Technique an attempt by the officer to force the car to spin out and stop And then she sped over stop sticks on Sheridan Boulevard and kept going She briefly drove the wrong way on U S before traveling the center line and speeding at mph onto the off-ramp for Church Ranch Boulevard Inside the car her passengers screamed at her to stop and let them out according to a letter from First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King in which she declined to bring criminal charges against the Westminster officers Hernandez-Torres lost control hit a ditch and the wagon went airborne for feet crashing into a pole then a retaining wall I remember feeling the impact of something but I m not sure what Hernandez-Torres commented in a message from the Denver Women s Correctional Facility Everything was black until I watched the windshield get smaller and smaller each time the car flipped Everyone in the car was seriously hurt and one commuter Nahtanha Ortiz was killed Hernandez-Torres woke up three days later in a hospital she d broken her back in three places and fractured ribs She healed for four months then she turned herself in to face vehicular homicide and related criminal charges she was not charged with the Denver armed robbery She pleaded guilty in late and was sentenced to seven years in prison The -year-old will be eligible for parole in Her life was worth so much more than what my actions caused Hernandez-Torres reported of Ortiz If I would of had the slightest clue what would happen if I ran from the cops I would of stopped the second the cop got behind me Nobody s life is worth the careless ness and recklessness I presented that night No amount of trouble you could get in for something so stupid as a stolen car is worth anyone s life or well-being and safety Most of Front Range law enforcement agencies do not pursue stolen vehicles but those that conduct such pursuits do them often The Post unveiled Click to enlarge Among pursuits in which agencies provided a reason for the pursuit to The Post stolen vehicles were the second-most common reason cited The top reason for pursuits was a felony crime The majority of stolen car chases were conducted by the Westminster Police Department and the Douglas County Sheriff s Office both of which allow such pursuits by procedures Westminster pursued at least stolen vehicles over five years of all of the department s cases while Douglas County pursued of its pursuits the content shows Nine different jurisdictions released at least one chase for a stolen conveyance even in several jurisdictions where policies prohibited such chases The Post determined In Loveland six of the department s total chases were unveiled to violate department approach including one pursuit for a stolen bicycle its details manifested In Denver the only fatal pursuit in five years happened during an out-of-policy pursuit for a suspected stolen motorcycle The involved officers initially lied about engaging in the pursuit an internal affairs inspection determined Denver police officers Matthew Prell and Jonathan Hayes spotted a Kia Soul in the parking lot of a -Eleven at E Colfax Ave on Oct When officers pulled up the driver took off They followed leaving the parking lot at mph according to figures pulled from the patrol bicycle Over the next limited minutes the officers tailed the Kia driver through the neighborhood Surveillance footage from Ashley Elementary School indicated the Kia speeding past at about mph and the officers driving by at about mph five seconds later according to officer disciplinary records The officers lost sight of the Kia but kept searching for it while driving at high speeds The driver Cassandra Livingston lost control of the car and crashed into a tree between Syracuse and Roslyn streets She was killed For the first year after Livingston s death her mother Tillie McHone concluded what the police informed her that her daughter died in a single-vehicle crash into a tree When she revealed out officers literally pursued her daughter through a news story about the officers discipline it was a total shock she explained Flowers and other decorations cover the trunk of a tree on Roslyn Street near where it intersects with Syracuse Street east of Fred Thomas Park in Denver on March The tree marks the spot where Cassandra Livingston Tillie McHone s daughter crashed her car and died during a Denver police pursuit in October Standing next to the tree with her -year-old son Julian Sanchez McHone explains We come here to visit on her birthday and Christmas Photo By Kathryn Scott Special to The Denver Post Prell and Hayes served -day suspensions for the pursuit and concurrent -day suspensions for making misleading statements police records show It was crazy they traumatized us all over again she explained Denver police Chief Ron Thomas announced officers must constantly weigh the jeopardy to general safety and the need for immediate apprehension when considering whether to start or continue a bicycle pursuit The city s initiative allows for pursuits only if the suspect s actions are so dangerous they present an imminent threat of serious injury or death or if the suspect committed or threatened to commit a violent felony or a felony with a deadly weapon Denver police don t pursue for stolen vehicles or majority property crimes Thomas commented Certainly arguments can be made that quite often stolen cars the reason they are stolen is so they can commit particular subsequent crime and that crime may be a violent crime Thomas commented But I just think what they might do is different from what we know they are going to do and are doing So if all we know is it is a stolen car but we don t know that they re getting ready to go do a drive-by shooting or there is specific other connection to a violent crime if we don t know that I just don t think it is consistent with our values to put the region at essential vulnerability McHone is now suing the police department She s angry and distrustful of law enforcement If a regular human being was acting that way they would consider it vehicular homicide McHone disclosed An officer should take the same kind of heed for any kind of force that could be deadly She regularly visits the tree where Livingston died its branches decorated with flowers crosses lights and a heart-shaped wreath She remembers her daughter When she was giggling it was just infectious McHone announced She just lit up the whole room A final goodbye Savannah Pineda who was killed Dec in a crash during a Westminster police pursuit at West nd Avenue and Harlan Street Photo courtesy of Simone Pineda The officers didn t come to Simone Pineda s door until around a m on Dec almost three hours after her twin crashed into the Westminster police car on West nd Avenue She can still recite what they revealed Savannah had been in a bad car accident she was being life-flighted to Children s Hospital Colorado They needed to get there as soon as they could I honestly just dropped Simone declared Her name came out of their mouth and my knees hit the floor They rushed to the hospital in Aurora Simone cried and screamed and prayed on the ride over But when they arrived Savannah wasn t there They waited and waited and certainly the twins mother got a call from a chaplain at Lutheran Medicinal Center in Wheat Ridge He narrated them to come there instead My heart dropped Simone noted Because I knew she was gone At Lutheran Simone identified her twin in a hospital bed She grabbed Savannah s hand and an alarm went off The doctors tried to get Savannah back after that but they never did It was like she waited for me to leave Simone disclosed tears running down her cheeks After the crash Savannah s boyfriend was arrested and charged as a juvenile with vehicular homicide and other charges He s already out of juvenile detention Simone mentioned she s seen him a meager times since the crash Related Articles Woman killed Westminster officer injured after stolen car crashes into police cruiser dead after crashing stolen bus into Westminster fire station during police chase Mother of woman killed after high-speed Denver police chase sues officers Child seriously injured in car crash after pursuit by Denver police She s tried to forgive him but can t He s still living a lifestyle rife with drugs and stolen cars and he s gotten into at least one more pursuit with police she noted We got into a messed-up life Simone stated A life we never should have lived But we also knew what came with the life Being in those cars we knew a high-speed chase was bound to come When it gets to a high-speed chase there is no stopping until you know it is safe But it s different now At the end of Simone cut ties with her mother moved back in with her grandmother and systematically dismantled her connections to that old life It was hard and she s proud that she did it She went back to school and is on track to graduate with her high school diploma this year at age She s launching a hair braiding business Braids by Mona in large part because that was Savannah s dream She s the one who taught Simone how to braid and Simone is determined to make the business happen for both of them It just breaks my heart because I wish I would have realized all this expletive sooner Simone revealed And I would have got us out of that lifestyle I feel like my sister would still be here if we would have got ourselves out of that She paused We live and we learn Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day