PHOENIX – Police have made an arrest after a man was killed when his car was struck by a vehicle fleeing police early Monday.
Berry Williams, 47, was booked into jail Thursday afternoon on charges of second degree murder, endangerment, felony flight and theft. He had been in a local hospital after being injured in the crash.
Detective James Holmes with the Phoenix Police Department said the incident began when officers observed a male passenger and a female driver switching seats while at the intersection of McDowell Road and 55th Avenue around 12:30 a.m.
Thinking this was suspicious, the officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop.
Williams apparently refused to yield to officers and fled westbound on McDowell Road at a high rate of speed.
Realizing the suspect was not going to stop, officers turned off their overhead lights and observed the vehicle drive to 75th Avenue and then onto eastbound Interstate 10.
The Phoenix Police Air Support Unit reportedly found the suspect vehicle eastbound on Interstate 10 at 59th Avenue and followed as the car exited at 27th Avenue.
Holmes said the suspect drove south to Buckeye Road, ran a red light, and proceeded east to 19th Avenue.
The suspect then reportedly drove south on 19th Avenue to Baseline Road where he ran another red light and hit a vehicle, driven by 27-year-old Abel Abebe, which had been traveling east on Baseline Road.
Police ground units arrived at the intersection and, when Phoenix Fire paramedics arrived at the scene, Abebe was pronounced deceased.
Family members say Abebe was a biochemical engineering student at ASU. He was on his way to care for disabled people at a group home when he was hit.
“They just take somebody’s life for nothing,” his brother, Hazaz Abebe said.
Abel was the youngest of five boys and one girl in his family from Ethiopia.
“I feel sorry for his family,” family friend Tadyos Gebereaceta said. “Yes, we miss him. It’s always the innocent person that passes away.”
Both suspects were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Holmes said the investigation revealed the suspects had committed a beer theft at a convenience store in the area of 58th Avenue and McDowell Road just prior to the initial traffic stop attempt.
The other suspect has been identified only as a 30-year-old woman.
Officers believe that alcohol might have been a factor in the collision.
