Police cruisers collide, killing 4-year-old

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – As the out-of-control police cruiser hurtled toward them Wednesday night, Crystal Lagrande grabbed her two youngest children and took cover behind a wall.

Lagrande’s boyfriend snatched up her eldest, a 4-year-old boy named Daviay, trying to reach safety, too, but they couldn’t escape.

The patrol car struck them, killing Daviay Lagrande and shattering the boyfriend’s legs. Furious residents later massed at the crash scene and threw bottles and rocks at police.

On Thursday, Mayor Ed Pawlowski apologized to the family, took responsibility for the crash and said the city would pay the family’s funeral expenses.

Two officers – one a rookie, the other an eight-year veteran – had been responding to the same report of a man with a gun when their cruisers collided at a downtown intersection. One of the cruisers slid onto the sidewalk, just a half-block from Lagrande’s home.

Crystal Lagrande remembers the car coming toward them, said her uncle, David Jones, a family spokesman.

“She grabbed the baby in the stroller, and she grabbed the daughter and ran to the other side of the wall,” Jones said. “Her boyfriend grabbed Daviay and tried to move away, but couldn’t.”

Another witness, Crystal Spearman, said: “First you heard the sirens, then you heard the tires screech, then you heard the bang. The little boy was laying there, severed in half.”

The boyfriend, Jason Marcella, 20, was hospitalized, but police said his injuries were not life-threatening.