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Name Not Disclosed

Age : 15

Gender : Female

Race : Black

Date : 06/17/2021

Location : 1000 block County Welfare Road

City : Leesport

County : Berks

State : Pennsylvania

Agency : Bern Township Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Passenger killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

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REASON FOR CHASE: Bern Township police attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Jashwa Marquis Colon on County Welfare Road after officers observed what the Berks County District Attorney's Office described as a motor-vehicle violation. Available public records do not specify the exact violation.
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NARRATIVE:
On 06/17/2021, Bern Township Police Department officers encountered a vehicle driven by Jashwa Marquis Colon on County Welfare Road in Berks County. Contemporary accounts described officers on patrol turning around to get behind the vehicle. A later account from the Berks County District Attorney's Office established that officers were attempting to conduct a traffic stop after observing a motor-vehicle violation. Colon accelerated away and police attempted to catch up with the vehicle.
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Colon drove at high speed while fleeing police. Two passengers were inside the vehicle: 20-year-old Michael Brooks Jr. and a 15-year-old girl from Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The girl's identity was withheld publicly at her family's request and subsequent prosecution records identified her only by the initials J.M.
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The pursuit ended when Colon crashed the vehicle. Both passengers sustained fatal injuries. Michael Brooks Jr. and J.M. were pronounced dead at approximately 3:30 a.m. The Berks County coroner publicly identified Brooks but did not release J.M.'s name because of the family's request.
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The later criminal prosecution established that Colon's high-speed flight from Bern Township police and resulting crash caused the deaths of both passengers. The available public accounts reviewed do not identify the pursuing Bern Township officer or officers by name and do not provide sufficient information to establish the exact traffic violation that prompted the attempted stop.
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DISPOSITION:
The fleeing driver was Jashwa Marquis Colon. Colon later pleaded guilty to two counts of homicide by vehicle arising from the deaths of J.M. and Michael Brooks. He was sentenced to 5½ to 14 years in Pennsylvania state prison.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Bern Township Police Department officer or officers who attempted the traffic stop and pursued Colon have not been publicly identified in the contemporary reporting, Fatal Encounters record, or later Berks County District Attorney account reviewed for this case. No officer background is included because attributing the pursuit to a particular Bern Township officer without documentary identification would be speculative.
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TOTAL FATALITIES/INJURIES: 2 fatalities

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/berks/coroner-ids-2-killed-in-crash-after-police-chase-in-bern/article_891d6b30-d02d-11eb-b3fa-affd8fbef1af.html
https://fatalencounters.org/
https://www.facebook.com/BerksDA/posts/jashwa-marquis-colon-was-sentenced-yesterday-to-5%C2%BD-14-years-in-state-prison-afte/675090711322014/