Search fatalities

Delmy “Patty” Alvarez

Age : 28

Gender : Female

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 08/12/2024

Location : South Parramore Avenue and West Anderson Street

City : Orlando

County : Orange

State : Florida

Agency : Orlando Police Department

Officer(s) :Esequiel Colon

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Bystander killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 02/10/2023, 28-year-old Delmy “Patty” Alvarez was killed when a Lexus being pursued by Orlando Police Officer Esequiel Colon crashed into the Honda Civic she was driving at South Parramore Avenue and West Anderson Street in Orlando. Alvarez was completely uninvolved in the police encounter. Her girlfriend, Gina Mustacchio, was riding in the passenger seat and survived with devastating injuries.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 10:18 p.m. when Colon saw a Lexus run a red light at Westmoreland Drive and South Street in the Parramore neighborhood. Colon later told an Orlando Police internal-affairs investigator that he considered running the red light reckless driving. This traffic violation—not a violent felony—was the specific initiating reason for Colon's decision to follow the vehicle.
.
Colon began following the Lexus in a marked Ford Explorer. As its driver increased speed, Colon continued behind him through residential city streets. Internal police records subsequently established that the vehicles reached speeds exceeding 60 mph.
.
Critically, Colon did not activate his emergency lights or siren during the pursuit. He later acknowledged this during the internal investigation. Consequently, Alvarez and other motorists approaching the eventual crash intersection received no emergency lights or siren warning that a high-speed police pursuit was entering the intersection.
.
The Lexus ran another red light at Parramore Avenue and West Anderson Street and struck the driver's side of Alvarez's Honda. Alvarez died from her injuries. Mustacchio suffered a broken jaw, multiple rib and pelvic fractures, a broken arm and injuries that ultimately cost her a kidney.
.
Orlando Police Department's own investigation determined that Colon's pursuit violated department policy. OPD policy permitted vehicle pursuits when an officer had reasonable suspicion that the fleeing person had committed or attempted a specified forcible felony. Running a red light did not qualify.
.
The internal investigation established that Colon himself acknowledged he did not have reasonable suspicion that the driver had committed or attempted a forcible felony and that the incident did not meet OPD's criteria for a vehicle pursuit.
.
The department nevertheless stopped short of attributing Alvarez's death to Colon. Colon received a 40-hour suspension and additional training for violating the pursuit policy. Under the police union agreement, he was permitted to surrender five days of paid leave instead of losing pay during the suspension.
.
No independent law-enforcement agency investigated Colon's role in Alvarez's death. The Orlando Police Department investigated both the fatal crash involving its own officer and Colon's policy violations. OPD later said there was no procedure requiring an outside investigation for a crash of this type.
.
The department's handling of the aftermath became a major part of the case. OPD did not issue a public news release explaining that Alvarez had been killed during a police pursuit and did not tell her mother, Marta Lopez, the full circumstances of her daughter's death. Lopez initially understood only that a reckless driver had run a red light and killed Delmy.
.
For months, OPD also denied an Orlando Sentinel public-records request by citing an active-investigation exemption even though the administrative investigation of Colon had already concluded. When records were eventually produced, substantial portions were redacted. Unredacted internal records became available through legal discovery in Mustacchio's civil litigation.
.
Lopez said she first began learning that police had been pursuing the Lexus through Mustacchio rather than through the department. When Lopez later confronted the crash investigator about the existence of a police pursuit, she recalled his response as asking who had told her.
.
The family has consequently been outspoken in challenging OPD's handling of Alvarez's death. Lopez said she believed the crash could have been prevented and explicitly assigned responsibility both to the pursued driver and to police. She criticized the department for failing to contact her or keep her informed.
.
Mustacchio likewise became an outspoken critic of the department. She argued that although the pursued driver was responsible for his actions, Colon's decision to chase him without emergency lights or siren materially contributed to the circumstances that killed Alvarez.
.
Mustacchio sued the City of Orlando, alleging that Colon's unauthorized pursuit caused or contributed to the collision. The lawsuit specifically cited Colon's violation of OPD's restrictive pursuit policy and his failure to use emergency lights and siren.
.
The City of Orlando settled the litigation in 2025 for $300,000. The settlement did not require the city to admit legal responsibility. Mustacchio said her purpose in bringing the case was accountability and exposing what she believed OPD had attempted to keep from public view.
.
The criminal investigation of the pursued driver was also marked by an extraordinary delay. Although police possessed evidence from the crash, charges were not submitted to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office until September 2024, approximately 19 months after Alvarez was killed and only days after investigative reporting publicly exposed OPD's role in the pursuit.
.
Records showed that DNA evidence from the Lexus airbag and suspected marijuana recovered from the vehicle had been submitted to FDLE in April 2023. OPD did not report receiving the DNA result until September 2024. The suspected marijuana was not submitted for testing until September 11, 2024, the day after other charges were forwarded to prosecutors.
.
The driver was ultimately arrested in February 2025 and prosecuted for the fatal crash. At his 2025 sentencing proceedings, Mustacchio took the unusual position of speaking partly in his defense because she believed Colon and OPD also bore substantial responsibility. Alvarez's mother likewise told the court she believed there were two responsible parties: the driver and the pursuing police officer.
.
The case gained renewed significance because OPD subsequently experienced another fatal pursuit involving an officer violating the department's pursuit restrictions. In February 2025, Detective Christopher Moulton attempted to stop a driver over an unreadable license plate; the ensuing pursuit ended with 49-year-old Gerald Neal being killed. Prosecutors declined to charge Moulton.
.
In March 2026, previously unseen video obtained through records requests provided additional visual documentation of the Alvarez pursuit and crash. The footage showed the pursued Lexus running the red light and striking Alvarez's car while Colon had been following without emergency lights or siren.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
Officer Esequiel Colon was the Orlando police officer whose unauthorized pursuit culminated in the crash that killed Delmy Alvarez.
.
OPD's own internal investigation sustained the pursuit-policy violation. Colon acknowledged that he did not have reasonable suspicion of a qualifying forcible felony and that the circumstances did not meet department pursuit criteria. He also acknowledged that he had not activated his emergency lights during the pursuit.
.
Colon received a 40-hour suspension and additional training. Rather than lose pay, he was allowed under the applicable employment agreement to surrender five days of paid leave. He remained employed by Orlando Police Department as of the March 2026 follow-up investigation.
.
The department's response drew criticism beyond Alvarez's family. Policing experts reviewing the internal records questioned both the pursuit and the level of discipline. Retired Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said the pursuit did not comport with the rationale behind OPD's restrictive policy, while University of South Carolina criminologist Geoffrey Alpert criticized the department's enforcement of its own prohibition.
.
The Alvarez case also exposed an institutional accountability problem at OPD: the department investigated its own officer, did not refer the fatality for an independent FDLE investigation, did not initially publicly disclose its role in the crash, withheld records while citing an active investigation and disciplined Colon internally rather than treating the pursuit as an independently investigated officer-caused fatality.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://news.yahoo.com/news/needless-death-delmy-alvarez-110000846.html
https://www.wesh.com/article/shooting-suspect-dies-orlando-crash/45658741
https://www.wesh.com/article/settlement-crash-victim-city-orlando/65082581
https://www.wesh.com/article/deadly-orlando-police-chase-arrest/63964290
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/suspect-arrested-2023-police-chase-resulted-crash-killed-woman
https://www.yahoo.com/news/suspect-arrested-orlando-police-chase-200400832.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/driver-faces-charges-traffic-death-210300756.html
https://www.wesh.com/article/orlando-police-pursuit-womans-death-car-crash/70728811