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Zayne Ortiz

Age : 14

Gender : Male

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 03/25/2021

Location : Chicot Road

City : Little Rock

County : Pulaski

State : Arkansas

Agency : Little Rock 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: Passenger killed during unauthorized pursuit of vehicle taken without permission
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NARRATIVE:
On 03/25/2021, Zayne Ortiz, 14, was a passenger in a GMC Terrain driven by a 12-year-old girl who had taken her stepfather's vehicle without permission. Little Rock police pursued the SUV through the city before it left the roadway and overturned, killing Zayne. Two other young occupants survived.
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Little Rock police did not publicly disclose that Zayne had been killed during a police pursuit. The department's own subsequent internal investigation characterized the chase as an “unauthorized pursuit.” The circumstances remained outside public view until July 2022, more than a year after Zayne's death, when the pursuit was uncovered and reported publicly.
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The case also appears to have escaped federal pursuit tracking. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the San Francisco Chronicle that the police report it received did not indicate that a pursuit had occurred. When subsequently asked whether LRPD had reported the pursuit to state officials for inclusion in federal pursuit data, an LRPD spokesperson said he did not know.
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The case had personnel consequences. The Chronicle reported that a state commission later stripped one of the officers involved in the pursuit of police powers. LRPD also acknowledged its failure to disclose the fatal incident and stated that incidents of similar magnitude would be released in a timely manner in the future.
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Zayne's mother, Cindy Ortiz, said it took more than a year for police to acknowledge that her son had died in a chase. She said she was angry because police had lied to her. She later told the Chronicle that she wanted people to know what had happened to her son.
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The case subsequently became an example in a national investigation of fatal police pursuits that were absent from federal pursuit statistics, including deaths in which police agencies initially failed to disclose their involvement.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.kark.com/news/working4you/lrpd-never-disclosed-2021-pursuit-deadly-crash/
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jul/15/lrpd-didnt-disclose-teen-death-in-2021-police-chase/
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2024/police-chases-undercount/