Stockton: Four Killed

What went wrong in Stockton?

On February 20, 2001, a Stockton Unified School District police officer saw a student peel out of the park lot at the end of a school day. He tried to pull over the 18-year-old male driving a Dodge truck near Franklin High School for this traffic infraction. Followed by the officer, the driver raced away. Despite the fact that school had just let out and there was heavy pedestrian and motor traffic, the officer continued to follow the driver at a high rate of speed.

Shortly thereafter, the suspect ran a stop sign and struck a car … and ended FOUR lives, all occupants in the car: Bernice Martinez and her two daughters, Christina, 16, and Ashley, 14, and Desiree Guzman, 14, who was getting a ride home. It was later learned that the suspect was driving a stolen truck. He is currently serving prison time for four counts of second-degree murder.

 

“I helped pull the three girls out …. They were just little high schoolers.”
       —Frank Evans, witness to a preventable tragedy


“Even calling it an ‘accident’ evokes a negative reaction of the way Desiree died (i.e. police pursuit).”
—Ron and Adell Guzman, parents of Desiree, age 14 

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