Undocumented immigrant killed when police chase ends with crash

LA JOYA — Roberto Saldivar Perez drove his white Lincoln Town Car out of the apartment complex and passed by a La Joya patrol officer.

What began as a relatively minor incident — the officer was called to the complex for a possible disturbance involving Saldivar — would end with the young man’s death.

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The policeman flipped on his emergency lights as Saldivar passed him and tried to pull the man over, according to a police affidavit.

Saldivar wouldn’t stop.

The 27-year-old undocumented immigrant had no intention of getting deported again, his grieving family would explain later.

The ensuing chase led through the side streets of La Joya as the drivers ran stop signs and hopped curbs, eventually approaching speeds of 100 mph along eastbound Expressway 83, the police affidavit states. Officers continued to pursue Saldivar even though they had been summoned to the apartment complex simply for a possible disturbance. Traffic along the expressway was scant as the pursuit led through Peñitas about 3:45 a.m. Wednesday.

A Peñitas police officer took the lead in the chase after La Joya officers called for backup, according to the police affidavit. Saldivar exited at Showers Road, turned left and crashed into a concrete pillar beneath the overpass. Officers found him unconscious in the driver’s seat with an unbuckled seat belt. He died at the crash scene.

“He was not drinking. He was not using drugs,” said Denise Corpus, a relative of Saldivar who said he was like a brother to her. “The only reason he was running was he did not want to be in jail.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety continues to investigate the fatal crash. Troopers said they had no information about whether alcohol or drugs were a factor.

His ex-girlfriend, identified by Saldivar’s relatives as Laura Melendez, had called him about an hour before the pursuit ensued and asked him to come over to her place at the Tabasco Apartments. But when Saldivar arrived, she wouldn’t let him inside.

Melendez called La Joya police, saying an unknown man was outside, peeling out in the apartment complex parking lot.

Several attempts to reach Melendez at her apartment Wednesday afternoon were unsuccessful.

Despite the relatively minor criminal charge Saldivar likely would have faced had he been arrested without incident, La Joya Police Chief Jose Del Angel defended his officer’s decision to continue the pursuit.

“This guy could have been a murderer — he could have broken the law,” the chief said. “We wanted to catch him.

“We should put the questions on (Saldivar) as to why he didn’t stop.”

Saldivar’s family said he was arrested after a similar earlier encounter with Melendez and was kept in custody until he was deported to Reynosa, his hometown. He had returned to the Palmview area about a month ago and had been working as a used-car salesman.

“He didn’t want to go to jail because of her,” Corpus said. “He was already in jail in the first place because of her.”

Saldivar’s death is the latest in a string of fatalities resulting from pursuits on Rio Grande Valley roads.

Before Wednesday, the most recent fatal wreck stemming from a chase occurred May 26, when Pharr police took off after a Ford Expedition. They broke off the chase when the driver entered heavy traffic, but the suspect reportedly continued speeding northeast of the city, ran a stop sign and collided with a vehicle east of Edinburg.

The driver of that vehicle died at the scene, resulting in manslaughter charges being brought against 17-year-old suspect Rafael Quintero.

In February, three women died when an Edinburg police pursuit went against traffic along an Expressway 281 frontage road. The suspect, 19-year-old Jose Luis Tovar, faces three counts of capital murder.

John Phillips heads PursuitWatch.org, a website that highlights the negative consequences of police pursuits for non-violent offenses. The website was created after Phillips’ 20-year-old sister was killed as a bystander to a police pursuit in 2001.

Despite the light traffic conditions before dawn Wednesday, officers should have broken off their pursuit of Saldivar, said Phillips.

“Law enforcement has to go on what they know, and in this case the guy was just causing a disturbance,” Phillips said. “It wasn’t worth the pursuit.”

Many local law enforcement agencies have written policies about when to give chase and when to abort pursuits.  

La Joya police have received tactical patrol training but have no written policy about when to stop chasing suspects — despite the department’s relatively frequent appearances in the local media after pursuing drug or human smugglers.

“It’s up to the discretion of the officer,” said Del Angel, the La Joya chief.

Phillips points to written pursuit policies as a way for officers and their supervisors to know how to decide during the heat of the moment — and to know “law enforcement is properly doing their job.”

Del Angel said the burden of responsibility in the pursuit rests on Saldivar — or anyone who refuses to pull over for officers — adding that Wednesday’s fatality was his department’s first in his nearly three years as chief. La Joya officers kept a “safe distance” behind their target once the pursuit entered the expressway, although a Peñitas officer trailed closer when Saldivar entered that city.

“The bottom line is it is the responsibility of the individual,” Del Angel said. “If he was stopped, he would still be breathing.

“Nobody wants pursuits to end like this.”

Peñitas Police Chief Oscar Ontiveros said his officers assist other agencies’ pursuits when they enter the city or they receive calls for backup.

Phillips disputes the notion that the responsibility rests with the person who is fleeing.

“Let’s say he was drunk,” he said. “Chasing someone because they’re drunk only compounds bad decisions. He’s already made that decision. Let’s not compound that decision and make it even worse.”

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San Juana Perez knows nothing will bring back her son.

The grieving mother sat with more than a dozen relatives outside their home Wednesday evening in Palmview.

Some of Saldivar’s family fought back tears as they shared memories of him. Others smoked cigarettes and expressed their desperate frustration over the situation.

“He was my baby,” Perez said in Spanish. “He was very confident, very happy. He was the darling of the family.”

The family lacks the money to bury Saldivar, but they have plans for his cremation next week.

The funeral will be a closed-casket service, relatives said. That’s how awful the collision was that took Saldivar from them.

Melendez, meanwhile, has reached out to the man’s family, Corpus said. The former girlfriend said she wanted to see him one last time before he is put to rest.

“She said, ‘I don’t want to have this on my conscience,’” Corpus said. “We can’t even see him for the last time because of her.”

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.