Aurora – A woman who lost her unborn child in a wreck with a stolen car Wednesday is recovering from her injuries but is “totally devastated” by the loss.
Twenty-six-year-old Monica Elita Ortiz’s condition was upgraded to fair Thursday, but she still is facing more surgeries, said Beverly Husted-Petry, spokeswoman for the Medical Center of Aurora.
“This entire family is totally devastated,” said Aurora police spokesman Rudy Herrera. “They are taking this hour by hour, not day by day. They have lost a child, and now they have to deal with the recovery of this poor woman.”
Ortiz was six months pregnant with a boy. It would have been her fourth child, Herrera said.
Ortiz and her family declined to comment.
Police will ask for several charges against the man who they say caused the crash Wednesday afternoon at East 19th Avenue and Oswego Street. His identity had not been confirmed by police late Thursday.
Colorado has no fetal-homicide laws, so no charges relating to the death of the fetus are applicable.
The Aurora Police Department will conduct an internal review to see whether the officer who pursued the man 1 1/2 blocks before the crash was acting within departmental policy. Herrera thinks he was.
The officer, who wasn’t named, stopped chasing the stolen car down East Colfax Avenue after he saw the driver crash into a stop sign and continue down a side street at high speed, blowing through two more stop signs.
The officer, a 25-year veteran, turned off the police cruiser’s lights and sirens and followed the stolen car at the posted speed limit, Herrera said.
The stolen car, however, reached speeds of up to 65 mph before broadsiding Ortiz’s Nissan after going through a stop sign at East 19th Street. Ortiz was trapped in the wreckage and had to be removed by firefighters.
Police directives say public safety is the top concern when engaging in a chase, Herrera said. And an officer can choose to stop the chase at any moment, which this officer did, Herrera said.
The department will review the chase and whether any policies were violated.
“But it doesn’t appear there were,” Herrera said. “I think he did everything seemingly by the book. He chose to terminate this … pursuit (because) what he thought would happen happened.”
Herrera said the man ran from the crash, was chased through several backyards and arrested in a garage in the 1700 block of Oakland Street.
The man remained in the hospital Thursday afternoon with head injuries suffered in the wreck. He will be jailed on his release from the hospital on suspicion of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, felony eluding, vehicular assault, hit and run resulting in serious bodily injury, motor vehicle theft and other traffic charges.
His bail is set at $10,000. Investigators may seek a higher bail.
Staff writer Jeremy Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
