MARTINEZ — A 21-year-old Vallejo man was driving a stolen SUV more than 100 miles per hour with a Hercules police officer chasing him when he ran a red light and crashed into a car containing three family members, killing a woman, her 6-year-old son, and injuring the boy’s mother, according to police testimony at an inquest Friday.
The March 23, 2023 crash that killed 31-year-old Ryniqueka Dowell and 6-year-old Jamari Humble has thus far resulted in murder charges against the alleged driver, Ralph White III, and a lawsuit by the victims’ family against Hercules police and the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office, whose coordinated efforts to detain White that night resulted in the fatal crash. White was arrested shortly after the crash and has been in jail ever since.
At a coroner’s inquest hearing Friday, all of the key players, save for White, took the witness stand, recounting in detail what happened in the minutes leading up to White allegedly barreling through the intersection of Parker Avenue and Fourth Street in Rodeo and T-boning Dowell’s vehicle. A California Highway Patrol inspector also testified that computers and other evidence established White was traveling at 103 miles per hour until a second or two before the crash, at which point he had braked to 90 mph.
Video of the crash shows the SUV blowing into a smaller black vehicle being driven by Dowell, with such force that Dowell’s car briefly comes off the ground and careens into a pole. The driver is then seen running away and jumping a fence into a residence yard, a few seconds before a Hercules police vehicle passes by, apparently unaware that the suspect had jumped the fence. White was arrested while buying a drink at a nearby gas station, and identified by two officers as the Mazda’s driver, according to police testimony.
But the incident began earlier in the evening when Contra Costa Sheriff’s Dep. Nicholas Mazza received a notification that the stolen Mazda had been picked up by a digital license plate reader near San Pablo Dam Road. Mazza located the Mazda and followed it onto Interstate 80 towards Hercules/Rodeo, but testified he was trying to keep a low profile and give off the appearance he wasn’t too interested in it. He planned to pull the Mazda over once a second officer arrived to conduct a “high risk” stop, he said.
Mazza said after White got off and back onto the freeway, he briefly lost sight of the Mazda. Hercules police Cpl. Christopher Hallford, who had been listening to Mazza’s dispatches, sat waiting for the Mazda near the Willow Road exit, just in case it got off the freeway there. That’s exactly what happened, Hallford testified, adding that he attempted to pull it over by himself and initiated a pursuit.
With Hallford still well behind the Mazda, he watched it speed off down Parker Avenue and “take off through a red light,” causing the collision, he testified. Video shows him pulling up to the crash scene five to 10 seconds after it occurred, checking the Mazda for suspects, then walking up to Dowell’s vehicle. He testified he could tell the three occupants were grievously injured and waited for more emergency responders to get there.
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The suit, filed by the surviving members of Dowell and Jamari’s family, accuses the officers from both agencies of recklessly chasing the Mazda through city streets and asks for unspecified damages.
White, meanwhile, is set to go on trial on two counts of murder in September. Police say they found a pistol in the Mazda and that White was out on bail at the time.
The Mazda had been reported stolen from a rental company in Belmont. Police say that a woman rented it, apologized for “forgetting” to bring it back, then changed her phone number. It is unclear how it ended up in White’s possession, according to authorities.
Coroner’s inquests are held for all law enforcement-related deaths, including police chases, per a countywide protocol in Contra Costa. Jurors are tasked with determining the official manner of death, but their verdict carries no civil nor criminal liability. The hearings differ from typical court proceedings, because witnesses can watch one another testifyff, no lawyers are involved except for the presiding officer, leading questions can be asked, witnesses can speak in narrative form, and members of the public can even submit questions.