Metairie girl is killed in crash in Indiana
Teenage driver was fleeing police
Thursday, August 09, 2007
By Daniel Monteverde
A Metairie girl was killed and two Metairie teens were injured in a car crash in Valparaiso, Ind., on Wednesday afternoon, the Porter County Sheriff's Department said.
About 2:15 p.m., a car that Brandie N. Broussard, 15; Rachel McNeil, 16; and Robert D. Norris, 17, were riding in struck the fuel tank of a tractor-trailer at the intersection of Indiana 49 and Porter County Road 400 North, also known as Vale Park Road, the Sheriff's Department said.
The crash occurred while the unidentified 16-year-old driver attempted to flee from police.
While a Porter County Sheriff's Department detective was checking the Vale Park Road home of the 16-year-old boy, wanted for questioning in a series of burglaries and on a warrant for violating his juvenile parole, the suspect pulled up in a red 1994 Saturn his mother owned.
When the suspect saw Sgt. Jeff Biggs speaking to his mother, he left.
A short distance away, the Sheriff's Department said, Biggs was able to pull over the car, but the suspect, who was driving the car, sped away.
As Biggs attempted to catch up to the car, the driver entered the intersection of County Road 400 and Indiana 49, where he ran a red light and collided with the tractor-trailer, hitting its fuel tank.
Biggs, Officer Gene Hopkins and several emergency medical technicians and firefighters worked to remove the occupants: the driver, McNeil, Norris and Broussard.
One of the passengers told police he tried to get the driver to pull over, the Sheriff's Department said.
All four teens were rushed to Porter Hospital in Valparaiso, where Broussard died from her injuries.
Sgt. Timothy Emmons, a spokesman for the Porter County Sheriff's Department, said Wednesday night that McNeil, Norris and the driver were recovering at the hospital. The suspect is being held under guard at the hospital.
Emmons said all the passengers had "obvious injuries" and some minor internal injuries. While he didn't know all the details of the Metairie teens' relationship to the suspect, he said at least one of them was an acquaintance of the suspect and had traveled to Indiana "in the last day or two."
Emmons said the suspect was a resident of Valparaiso. He said he did not know whether the suspect had ever lived in Louisiana.
The Indiana State Police are investigating the crash, Emmons said, and any new charges will be determined when detectives can confer with Porter County prosecutors.
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Daniel Monteverde can be reached at dmonteverde@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3452.
