Chicago Approves $27 Million Settlement After an Unauthorized Police Chase Killed a Mother of Six

On June 24, 2017, Stacy Vaughn-Harrell was driving through the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side with her adult daughter, Kimberlyn Myers, in the car. A few blocks away, officers had stopped a white Kia SUV in connection with a report of shots fired. A passenger stepped out, and then the Kia took off. What followed sent the fleeing driver and the officers chasing him onto residential streets at speed.

The pursuing officers did not follow the rules that govern chases. Chicago Police Department policy requires a marked squad car to lead any pursuit with its lights and siren on. Instead, an unmarked vehicle led the chase, and the lights and siren stayed off. The Kia ran multiple stop signs and reached roughly 50 miles per hour before it slammed into Vaughn-Harrell's car.

Vaughn-Harrell, a mother of six, was killed. Her daughter survived with a fractured collarbone, a lacerated liver, and a head injury. The family hired Lance Northcutt and the trial team at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, who sued the City of Chicago and argued that the crash was the direct result of a pursuit that never should have started.

A 2023 jury agreed and awarded the family about $10.2 million, split roughly evenly between Vaughn-Harrell's death and her daughter's injuries. The city appealed, a Cook County judge vacated the verdict and granted a new trial, and the case was set to be tried a second time.

That second trial never came. As the firm prepared for it, Northcutt told reporters the evidence had grown into something larger than the original case. He alleged that officers tried to hide what they did: some failed to turn on their body cameras or switched them off during the chase, and the two who did record delayed helping the injured. "What happened that day was not the work of heroes," Northcutt said. "It was the work of cowboys who decided they were not only going to pursue a vehicle in violation of department policy, they decided they were going to cover it up." He estimated a second jury could award far more than $100 million.

Rather than retry the case, the city agreed to settle for $27 million. Taxpayers will cover $20 million, and the city's insurer will pay the remaining $7 million. The City Council approved the payment in March 2026, with the Finance Committee clearing it first and the full Council signing off without debate.