Suburban Chicago family wants answers after officer gets another DUI after chase killing 2 teens
CHICAGO (CBS) — A Harvey police officer who had been involved in a high-speed chase that killed two teenagers in Hazel Crest got off with just probation for a previous drunk driving case while off duty.
The family told the CBS 2 Investigators he shouldn't be behind the wheel. And CBS 2 discovered the officer was arrested a third time for drunk driving just last month.
"This is exactly what I was worried about," said Shellrece McIntyre, whose daughter was killed in a police chase.
The photos from last month's crash in Flossmoor are startling.
"He rear-ended it at extremely high speeds," said Jon Erickson, the family's attorney.
Police records show Harvey Officer Frederick Washington was drunk, had alcohol in the car, was driving without insurance, and had a gun in the car when police arrived on the scene.
"Seeing the photos, it dropped my heart," Shellrece McIntyre said.
Looking at the photos was particularly hard for McIntyre because they look eerily similar to the photos of the car her 19-year-old daughter Lexi Dampier was in when she died in November 2022.
"What is it going to take? What is it going to take? He's a liability," McIntyre said.
Last year, CBS 2 sat down with Lexi's family when they filed a lawsuit against the city of Harvey and Washington, who initiated a high-speed chase of the car Lexi was in without permission from dispatch, as required by Illinois State Police and Harvey police directives.
Squad cars were seen barreling through a Dixie Highway intersection at speeds of up to 96 miles per hour before the fatal crash in Hazel Crest. There were questions about the officer's history of reckless driving.
CBS 2 discovered Washington had recently gotten off probation for a May 2020 case in which he was arrested and charged with his second DUI.
"It's a tragedy that was 100% avoidable, preventable, and lands in the lap of Harvey," said Erickson.
McIntyre said they wanted Officer Washington off the streets, and not even six months later, she learned of this third DUI and warned the city it would happen again.
"I did. I did. I did in the last interview we had I just didn't want this to be someone else's child," McIntyre said.
The City of Harvey and the Harvey Police Department have never responded to CBS 2's requests for comment on the case.
While the Harvey Police Department did not confirm, sources tell CBS 2 that Washington is on paid leave following the last arrest.
Lexi's family hopes the city finally takes notice.
"It's a criminal failure on the part of the police chief of Harvey and the city of Harvey that Frederick Washington remains a police officer," Erickson said.
"I don't understand it. My daughter's life wasn't enough," McIntyre said.