INDIANAPOLIS — All that’s left from a deadly crash at the corner of Emerson Avenue and Orion Avenue on the east side of Indy is a broken fence, shredded tree trunk and shattered glass. The impact woke up most of the nearby neighbors.
“You could hear tires screeching and the tree,” said Darien Thurnall, who lives just down the street from the intersection.
Thurnall looked out the window of her Emerson Avenue home Monday around 2 a.m. to see the aftermath of the crash and multiple police cars surrounding it.
“There were at least six of them in pursuit and they kind of slowed down over the tracks,” Thurnall said.
The tracks she’s referring to are railroad tracks that cross Emerson and create a hump in the road. Thurnall said cars speed over the tracks, go air born and lose control. That’s what she thinks happened in this instance.
”If they’re coming without slowing down at all they’re automatically air born,” Thurnall said.
The man in the car was 55-year-old Everett Mason. He later died at Eskenazi Hospital.
A Brownsburg Police spokesperson said Brownsburg officers tried to stop Mason in the 10,000 block of US 136 in Hendricks County for multiple felonies. Police said Mason threatened officers and drove away from them, starting the chase. Officers followed Mason from Hendricks County to Speedway, then onto I-70 EB and off onto Emerson Avenue.
From there, Brownsburg PD said Mason turned off his lights. Officers momentarily lost Mason before finding his car crashed into the tree at Emerson and Orion. The chase lasted 16 minutes and spanned roughly 20 miles from Hendricks County to the east side of Indy.
Thurnall said she heard the sirens and saw the lights just after the crash. She saw multiple police cars as they pulled up.
“Lots of cop cars with lights, lots of people standing over there on that corner and then the car,” Thurnall said.
The car Mason was driving broke in two on impact. Brownsburg PD said officers rendered aid until an ambulance took Mason away. He later died at the hospital.
These photos from neighbor Paul Rodgers show the severe damage to Mason’s car.
Brownsburg PD were pursuing Mason because of a domestic disturbance that happened just hours before in Plainfield Sunday night.
A probable cause affidavit for Mason’s arrest show he’s accused of hitting his girlfriend in her head with a pan and ripping out her braids. The woman told police she lived with Mason and he attacked her in front of her three kids.
The court docs show Mason left before police could get to the couple’s home but a Plainfield officer did try to pull over Mason. When he didn’t stop a chase started. Court docs show Mason hit 115 mph during the chase and the Plainfield officer terminated it when Mason got close to I-465.
Brownsburg Police Chief Joseph Grimes said the chase is an active investigation and will be reviewed in accordance with all applicable Brownsburg Police Dept. Policies and Procedures, including an after action review.
