MILL CREEK — A fatal police chase Saturday began after an officer tried to stop a man who reportedly sped away when clocked driving about 10 mph over a posted 30 mph limit on a residential street.
The driver was identified as David Mordi, 24 of Snohomish. He crashed when he apparently lost control of the Chevrolet Impala, which he’d purchased only a couple of weeks earlier, according to a search warrant filed in connection with the death investigation.
The vehicle left the road, struck a tree and rolled, coming to rest on its side. Mordi was ejected into the street, where evidence suggests he was struck by a pursuing Mill Creek patrol car, the search warrant said.
The death is being investigated by the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, or SMART. The task force of detectives from various law enforcement agencies throughout the county focuses on incidents involving police use of force and in-custody deaths.
The search warrant was sought to recover evidence that may have been in the car that crashed, including any electronic information associated with the vehicle’s data link connector and airbag control system.
The incident unfolded in less than a minute, starting just before 11 p.m., the search warrant said.
The officer who was chasing Mordi, identified in court papers as Scot Larose, told investigators he lost sight of the Impala as it rounded a corner. He then spotted what “he believed to be a bag in the roadway,” the search warrant said.
The officer tried without success to avoid the object but struck it with his left front tire.
“After he struck the object and observed the vehicle on its side in his rear view mirror, he made a U-turn and returned to the scene,” the search warrant said.
Only a minute had passed from when the chase began before the officer radioed dispatchers that there was a vehicle on its side and “that he ‘might have hit somebody,’” documents said.
Dispatchers scrambled other officers and paramedics to the crash scene near the intersection of Trillium Boulevard SE and Village Green Drive, but the driver was dead.
Responding officers had a good idea who he was after spotting the man’s Everett Community College student identification in the backseat, the search warrant affidavit said. Mordi had numerous scrapes with the law, and served time for a 2014 car jacking, court records show.
Investigating officers reported that tire marks were visible showing the Impala’s path off the roadway.
The radar in the pursuing officer’s patrol car showed it had clocked an incoming vehicle moving 42 mph. The chase began shortly after the officer and the driver had passed by each other, the search warrant said.
The officer has worked for the Mill Creek Police Department for about a year and has been in law enforcement for more than 10. In keeping with department policies, he was placed on administrative leave.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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