Family questions whether Fort Worth police did enough in fatal crash investigation
An attorney representing the mother of a motorcyclist killed in May believes Fort Worth police have failed to fully investigate the crash, but the department says its findings are complete.
Isaiah Mobley, 19, died in May after his Suzuki motorcycle collided with a Honda Civic at the intersection of Leota Street and Carver avenues in Fort Worth’s Greenway neighborhood. The crash prompted concern over the the placement of stop signs at the intersection.
Officers did not speak with witnesses or identify all the occupants of the Honda that day, Dallas attorney Emmanuel Obi said, despite video footage that showed the crash and at least two witnesses. Obi contends investigators failed the family by not fully scrutinizing the crash. He called the investigation “materially deficient.”
“Anybody will tell you a fatality investigation should be carried out until all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed,” he said. “Someone died and that didn’t happen here.”
Obi represents Mobley’s mother, Mandy Mobley.
Isaiah Mobley and another motorcyclist were northbound on Leota on May 19 when the driver of a southbound car turned left onto Carver Avenue in front of the motorcycles. Mobley’s motorcycle smashed into the passenger side of the car. The force was great enough to throw him over the car and onto the ground several feet away, according to a Fort Worth Police Department accident report.
A security camera on a nearby home recorded the collision.
That video, reviewed by the Star-Telegram, shows the Honda slowly turn as the revving engine of an unseen motorcycle is heard. Within seconds, the bike enters the intersection at a high speed and collides with the passenger side of the car.
In the moments before the crash, at least one person can be seen in the yard across the street from the camera and a silver sedan can be seen approaching the intersection. A second motorcyclist appears immediately after the crash.
Four people exit the Honda in the seconds following the crash. First, the driver, then two people from back of the car. About 20 seconds later another person appears to emerge from the vehicle.
But the Fort Worth Police Department accident report lists only three occupants in the car. Though officers took voluntary written statements from them, none mentioned a fourth person. No record of witness statements from the day of the crash exist, Obi said, and police did not attempt to identify the fourth occupant despite having the security video available.
“I would think any piece of evidence is important to understand the totality of the events that led to the loss of a life,” Obi said.
In a statement, the police department said officers were not aware of the fourth occupant on the day of the crash, but later identified him. They will amend the traffic report, Sgt. Chris Daniels said. Officers also interviewed two witnesses, he said.
The Star-Telegram has not named the driver or passengers because no on has been charged with a crime.
One of the people visible in the video at the time of the crash was Tameisha Thompson, who also made a 911 call.
She said she told officers she saw the crash and was directed to wait for an investigator to take her statement. After several hours, an officer told her she was no longer needed, she said.
“It was kind of wild to me at the time,” she said on Friday.
Nearly three weeks after Mobley died, on June 7, a Fort Worth police officer called Thompson seeking information about the crash.
Obi said the investigation showed either a lack of training or a “callous disregard for the loss of life.”
Regardless of Mobley’s speed, Obi said he believes the driver of the Honda should have been charged with failing to yield, among other violations.
Daniels said no citations were written because Mobley was found at fault for the crash.
“In this case, the totality of the circumstances did not rise to the level where anyone would be charged with a criminal offense,” he wrote in an email.
He said members of the Traffic Investigations Unit met with the family and explained their findings, he said.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Family questions whether Fort Worth police did enough in fatal crash investigation."
