ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando detective whose pursuit of a fleeing driver led to a crash that killed a pedestrian will not face any criminal charges in the incident, according to the state attorney’s office.
Detective Christopher Moulton was placed on administrative leave after the Feb. 12 crash, which caused the death of Gerald Neal, 56, and left the other driver — 30-year-old Dornell Bargnare — facing charges of leaving the scene of a crash with death, vehicular homicide, driving without a valid license causing serious bodily injury or death and fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement.
Bargnare pleaded not guilty in September to all four charges.
[WATCH: Suspect fleeing Orlando police accused of killing pedestrian]
According to an FHP crash report, Bargnare was driving south on Rio Grande Avenue in a blacked-out 2012 Nissan Altima — i.e., no headlights or taillights — running from Moulton’s unmarked Orlando police Ford F-150 when he attempted to make a sharp left turn onto Indiana Street. The Nissan ran off the roadway, striking Neal and a utility pole, the report states.
Neal was also struck by a front tire of the Orlando police pickup when it traveled onto the south curbed shoulder of Indiana Street, according to FHP.
Though the police department said Moulton’s truck was not equipped with a dash camera, body-camera footage from the night of the pursuit shows his perspective. After Moulton’s vehicle comes to a stop, the footage shows him running after Bargnare on foot, with the next 20 minutes of the video showing Moulton and other officers canvassing the neighborhood and searching for him.
“There was a guy under your truck,” an officer can be heard saying to Moulton in the final minutes of the video.
“Under my truck? Hiding? OK, yeah, I’ll check right now,” Moulton replies moments before the video ends.
While prosecutors say Bargnare caused the injuries that killed Neal, the state attorney’s office said they found there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Moulton.
Moulton could still face discipline for violating the police department’s pursuit policy.
The detective said he tried to initiate the traffic stop after seeing Bargnare’s Nissan with an unreadable license plate, yet that term does not appear in the police department’s policy language defining “forcible felonies” such as murder, armed robbery, and armed sexual battery which, along with reasonable suspicion that a fleeing suspect committed or attempted to commit such felonies, are the qualifying factor in whether officers may engage in a pursuit.
That internal investigation is still underway.
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