The crash occurred on Nov. 27 at the intersection of Route 73 and Evesham Road in Evesham.
EVESHAM TWP. -- Heather Wendel, 37, of Cherry Hill, was driving south on Route 73 through the intersection with Evesham Road just after noon on Nov. 27.
"I had just crossed the intersection and I saw flashing lights coming in the distance in the opposite direction," Wendel recalled in an interview this week.
"Then I heard a crash and through my rear-view mirror I saw a car flipping through the air," she said. "It was like something from 'The Fast and the Furious.'"
Wendel's vehicle was one of seven involved in a chain-reaction accident that police said resulted from James C. Fitzpatrick Jr., 46, of Beverly, fleeing a Voorhees officer who was trying to stop him.
According to accident reports obtained from Evesham police, the incident involved a total of 17 people, including children. None had serious injuries, despite the fact that two vehicles rolled over across the median and one -- Fitzpatrick's -- burst into flames while he fled on foot. He was arrested by the pursuing officer, police said.
The reason Officer Mark Paranto attempted to stop and then pursued Fitzpatrick was a broken tail light, Voorhees Capt. Carmen Del Palazzo said this week.
Fitzpatrick had done time for killing roommate
As with every police pursuit, the chase was reviewed by three ranking officers, including Del Palazzo. He said the reviews, completed shortly after the incident, found that Paranto's decision to pursue and the pursuit itself were both in accordance with department policy.
According to the policy, an equipment violation is not among the list of offenses serious enough to justify a chase and the resulting risk of injury or death.
However, the policy does allow a pursuit if the driver "poses an immediate threat to the safety of the public or other police officers," regardless of the infraction.
Del Palazzo said officers have to weigh the circumstances, from the type of road to the traffic, before deciding to pursue because they could be endangering suspects, themselves and the public.
"It's something that really doesn't happen very often," he said of pursuits. "We're very cautious and there are strict guidelines on why we can pursue... The last thing you want is for the vehicle to speed away and cause a crash."
While the instigator of the pursuit was a brake light, Voorhees police discovered later that the man they arrested had warrants for his arrest from multiple jurisdictions. Voorhees police said in a statement that he had been leading officers on "high-speed pursuits" earlier in November.
He is now facing 90 charges from different incidents. They are, according to the Camden County Department of Corrections, 18 counts of driving with a revoked or suspended license and nine counts each of resisting arrest by flight, eluding, obstructing law enforcement, providing false information, and robbery threat. He was also charged with 27 counts of unlawful taking of a motor vehicle.
He is being held in the Camden County Jail on $178,039 bond, according to the Department of Corrections.
Robber hid in backseat, pulled gun on driver
Giving chase
Paranto first tried to stop Fitzpatrick on Route 73 North near the border with Evesham. Del Palazzo said it was in Voorhees, but Evesham's investigating officer, Matthew Divito, wrote in his report that it began in Evesham.
Voorhees police denied a request for its accident and pursuit reports from the crash, claiming they are exempt from Open Public Records Act because the Fitzpatrick is still under investigation.
Del Palazzo said that even if it had hypothetically started in Evesham, officers have the jurisdiction to try to stop a vehicle in another community.
According to the Voorhees police statement, Fitzpatrick accelerated when Paranto turned on his blue lights. The pursuit lasted for just over a mile.
Devito wrote that Fitzpatrick moved into the shoulder near Commonwealth Drive and began passing vehicles, but hit a Mazda CX9 when the shoulder ended.
A police diagram of where vehicles came to rest after the Nov. 27 crash at the intersection of Route 73 and Evesham Road. Vehicle 1, at the bottom, is the vehicle driven by James C. Fitzpatrick Jr. The Mazda rolled onto its side, went over the median and in the southbound lanes, hit a Chevy Equinox and a Honda Element, Divito wrote. The Equinox hit Wendel's car.
Fitzpatrick's car, after hitting the Mazda, struck the median and rolled over. While spinning across the southbound lanes on its roof, it collided with a Mercury, Divito wrote.
It came to rest on the far side of the intersection past Evesham Road. The engine block caught on fire as Fitzpatrick fled on foot, according to the report.
Paranto chased and arrested him without incident, Voorhees police said in the release.
The Voorhees Police Department's pursuit policy says an officer must terminate a pursuit if no one else is there to help an injured person, but Del Palazzo said that an officer can continue on if he or she believes that another emergency responder nearby who could help.
The reports indicate that the second officer on scene, Evesham Sgt. Thomas Campbell, called for EMS and firefighters while Paranto was chasing Fitzpatrick.
The people taken to the hospital to be evaluated or treated for minor injuries were the driver of the Chevy Equinox and his two juvenile passengers.
An 'obligation' to make the stop
Del Palazzo said that while an equipment violation is generally not a good reason to start a pursuit, the officer does have an "obligation to try to make the stop."
Sometimes drivers do not notice the officer behind them, so it isn't unusual for an officer to have to follow with the lights and siren on for some distance.
If it becomes clear the driver is trying to elude the officer, however, the officer and a supervisor, who is required to be notified, will have to evaluate if a pursuit is warranted. If the driver is an immediate threat to those around him, the policy says he or she can be pursued.
An officer should terminate the pursuit if there is no longer a threat to the officer or the public, if the driver is identified and could be arrested later, if the distance between the vehicles becomes too great, or if the pursuit requires excessive speeds or other dangerous driving.
There are no rules dictating how fast an officer is allowed to drive during a pursuit, Palazzo said, since what would be considered a safe speed depends so much on the type of road and conditions like traffic.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.