State police are investigating a crash that killed a 27-year-old motorcyclist after Hamden cops reportedly chased him into New Haven.
The dead man’s father said he’s been looking for answers to what happened but has run into a blue stonewall.
The fatal crash occurred at the hydra-cornered intersection of Dixwell Avenue and Orchard Street around 12:25 a.m. Saturday. Two hours after it occurred, motorcyclist Maurice Drexell Adams was pronounced dead at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Police did not issue any releases about the incident. Adams’ father, Bruce Corwell, said Tuesday that he still can’t get police to give him any information.
“No police report. I have not had one documentation, not one communication about my dead son. No condolences. No nothing,” Corwell said.
“I believe my son was the victim of a crime.”
“They’re trying to keep it quiet,” said Adams’ brother, Dean Williams. “There’s a lot of witnesses.”
New Haven police originally investigated the crash. Then they turned it over to the state police “because Hamden police may have been involved,” said Lt. Joe Witkowski, the patrol shift commander at the time of the crash.
Neither Hamden police spokesman Capt. Ron Smith nor the state police returned calls for comment Tuesday.
According to New Haven police reports, numerous witnesses saw a police vehicle — which two witnesses identified as a Hamden police vehicle — chase Adams on his motorcycle down Dixwell Avenue into New Haven.
Several of the witnesses reported that after Adams fell, the driver of the police vehicle pulled up to look at him, “suddenly accelerated” and “left the scene with the rider on the ground.”
Police received conflicting reports about whether the police vehicle had struck the motorcycle or whether Adams lost control on his own.
“They were chasing him. Then he crashed,” one eyewitness, Nick Crawford, told the Independent Tuesday. “He tried to stop and the brakes locked up.
“They rolled by him. I had to call the ambulance.”
The family has hired attorney Michael Stratton to look into the case.
Stratton said he sees two major problems in the way Hamden police handled the incident: They shouldn’t have been chasing a motorcyclist in the first place. And they shouldn’t have left the scene of an accident.
“You never chase a motorcycle, ever,” Stratton argued.
“There were no drugs on the guy. There’s no alcohol. All we have maybe is speeding. You don’t chase people for speed.”
Adams attended Hillhouse High School. His brother said he was driving a Yamaha R6 bike at the time of the crash.
When you enter into a police chase willingly, you should expect nothing good to happen. I know that when i see police lights in my rear view, i yell an expletive and pull over.
Bad choice of actions on the motorcyclist.