Politics
Pay Family of Woman Struck and Killed by Driver Being Chased by Police $27M, City Lawyers Recommend
(WTTW News)
Chicago should pay $27 million to the family of a woman who was struck and killed by a driver being chased by Chicago police, city lawyers recommended, the latest massive settlement prompted by a police pursuit.
The City Council’s Finance Committee on Friday is set to consider the proposed settlement, which calls for taxpayers to pay $20 million and the city’s insurance company to pay $7 million. A final vote of the City Council could come March 18.
Stacy Vaughn-Harrell, 47, died in the crash that ended the chase on June 24, 2017, records show. Kimberlyn Myers, then 21, Vaughn-Harrell’s daughter, suffered a fractured clavicle and lacerated liver in the crash, records show.
Vaughn-Harrell was the mother of six children.
The incident began when Chicago Police officers patrolling Washington Park heard gunshots and saw a white Kia Sorrento quickly leaving an alley. Officers stopped the Kia, and Officers Shawn Susnis and Megan Ryan, in an unmarked police vehicle, arrived to assist.
The Kia fled, with Susnis and Ryan giving chase. Susnis is no longer with CPD, while Ryan is assigned to the Wentworth (2nd) Police District’s Critical Incident Response Team and earns $115,158 a year, according to the city’s employee database and a CPD spokesperson.
Reaching speeds of 60 mph, the pursuit lasted for six blocks until Kia ran a stop sign and collided with the car driven by Harrell, killing her and seriously injuring her daughter, records show. Police were unable to arrest either the driver of the Kia nor its front-seat passenger but recovered a gun from the Kia, records show.
A spokesperson for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which launched three months after the pursuit occurred, said there is no evidence that the pursuit that ended with Vaughn-Harrell’s death was investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority, which was replaced amid the outcry over the police murder of Laquan McDonald.
Vaughn-Harrell’s family sued the city, alleging that her death was the result of officers’ “willful and wanton” decision to chase the Kia.
A Cook County jury found the city liable for Vaughn-Harrell’s death in May 2023, awarding her family $10.2 million, records show.
However, lawyers for the city said errors by the judge deprived them of a fair trial. The judge agreed, and ordered a new trial. Lawyers for Vaughn-Harrell’s family appealed that ruling, arguing that a new trial was not warranted.
In August, an Illinois appeals court affirmed the ruling ordering a new trial, sending the matter back to the Cook County Circuit Court.
Since the city appealed the verdict in this case, only to recommend paying the family nearly double what the jury verdict would have required.
John Hendricks, managing deputy corporation counsel, litigation, for the Chicago Department of Law said in a statement to WTTW News that “since the first trial and subsequent appeal, new factual allegations have come to light that required substantial reevaluation.”
“City lawyers have a duty to regularly reassess the value of cases based on the current posture of the lawsuit,” Hendricks said. “Given the substantial new evidence that would be presented at trial, the Department of Law believes the recommended settlement is in the best interest of the taxpayers.”
CPD changed its vehicle pursuit policy in 2020 and then again in 2022 to require officers to “consider the need for immediate apprehension of an eluding suspect and the requirement to protect the public from the danger created by eluding offenders.”
CPD policy requires pursuits to be conducted by marked vehicles with their lights and sirens activated.
The City Council’s Finance Committee rejected a recommendation from its lawyers last month to pay $8.3 million to the family of Dominga Flores Gomez, 55, who was struck and killed by a driver being chased by Chicago police in 2022.
In December 2024, a Cook County jury ordered the city to pay $79.85 million to the family of Da’Karia Spicer, who was killed in a crash on Sept. 2, 2020, that ended a police pursuit.
City lawyers appealed that verdict, one of the largest in Chicago history, and reached an agreement to resolve the lawsuit by paying a total of $62.5 million, with $20 million coming directly from Chicago taxpayers and the city’s insurance company paying $42.5 million, records show.
Since January 2025, Chicago taxpayers spent at least $103.1 million to resolve 14 lawsuits brought by people who were injured or on behalf of those killed during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
The city’s insurance has paid an additional $63.5 million to resolve those cases, records show.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
