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Luis Hernandez

Age : 38

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/26/2022

Location : William Penn Highway and Graham Boulevard

City : Monroeville

County : Allegheny

State : Pennsylvania

Agency : Monroeville Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Bystander killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/26/2022, 39-year-old Luis Hernandez was killed while riding his mini motorbike home from work when a vehicle being pursued by Monroeville Police Department officers struck him at William Penn Highway and Graham Boulevard in Wilkinsburg. Hernandez was an uninvolved bystander and father of three children.
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Monroeville police initiated the pursuit at approximately 7:54 p.m. after attempting to stop a driver because police knew he had outstanding felony arrest warrants. When the driver continued away, Monroeville officers pursued east along William Penn Highway through multiple municipalities toward Wilkinsburg. Because Hernandez was the uninvolved person killed, the pursued driver's identity is omitted from this report.
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Later court records substantially expanded what was known about the pursuit. According to the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Hernandez's family, police continued the pursuit at speeds reaching approximately 107 mph as it traveled from Monroeville through Churchill and into Wilkinsburg on a Friday evening.
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Hernandez was traveling on his mini motorbike near William Penn Highway and Graham Boulevard when the pursued vehicle struck him. Some Monroeville officers stopped after the collision to render assistance. Hernandez was transported to a hospital but died from his injuries.
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The pursued vehicle continued away after the fatal collision. Police subsequently located the driver near his residence. The later criminal case resulted in guilty pleas including homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault, and the driver received a sentence of 17 to 34 years in state prison.
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Hernandez's family maintained from shortly after his death that police shared responsibility for creating the circumstances that killed him. His aunt, Evelyn Hernandez, questioned why officers pursued at extreme speeds across multiple municipalities when police knew the person they were seeking and where he lived.
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In 2024, Hernandez's family filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against Monroeville, its police department, Police Chief Doug Cole and several officers. The lawsuit alleges that police unlawfully continued a dangerous high-speed pursuit that violated established model pursuit policies and unnecessarily endangered the public.
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Body-camera footage obtained in connection with the case revealed that officers themselves discussed the permissiveness of Monroeville's pursuit policy. In one recording, an officer described the department's pursuit policy as comparatively lenient.
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More significantly, body-camera footage captured Chief Doug Cole acknowledging after Hernandez was struck that he had considered terminating the pursuit. Cole told an officer that he had thought about calling the pursuing officers off. The officer responded that he had considered the same thing but indicated that traffic had not initially appeared severe. Neither terminated the pursuit before it reached Wilkinsburg and Hernandez was struck.
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The family's attorney argued that the pursuit should never have occurred at speeds exceeding 100 mph because police knew the identity and residence of the person they wanted to arrest and therefore had alternatives to an extended high-speed pursuit through populated communities. The lawsuit alleges that the police decision to continue pursuing created the danger that resulted in Hernandez's death.
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Hernandez was returning home from work when he was killed. He left three children. His family described his death as the loss of an innocent person whose ordinary commute home intersected with a police pursuit in which he had no involvement.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
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The publicly available reporting on the federal lawsuit identifies Police Chief Doug Cole as a defendant and confirms that several Monroeville officers were also sued over the pursuit. The news records located do not reliably identify each pursuing officer by name. Cole's own recorded comments establish that he was monitoring the pursuit and considered ordering officers to terminate it before Hernandez was killed.

The Hernandez litigation also raised broader questions about Monroeville's pursuit practices. In August 2024, Monroeville officers were involved in another high-speed pursuit originating from a minor traffic violation that culminated in a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus crashing into a house in Homewood. The Hernandez family's attorney cited that subsequent incident while arguing that Monroeville's pursuit policy required reform.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/monroeville-police-department-lawsuit/
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https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/deadly-hit-and-run-in-wilkinsburg-ends-in-shots-fired-suspect-taken-into-custody/
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https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/police-investigating-officer-involved-shooting-after-fatal-hit-run-wilkinsburg/3KRIXZP3OZBDRJSRULQBI5AANY/
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https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/new-charges-filed-deadly-crash-during-police-chase-wilkinsburg/TLGWRXTDLVFELJIFCIK4BKW23Y/
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https://www.wtae.com/article/monroeville-police-chase-lawsuit/62267375
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https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/family-innocent-man-killed-2022-crash-caused-by-police-chase-wilkinsburg-files-lawsuit/FXA4LHSYZZEFBFRGIE4RV5BSNU/