Innocent bystander caught in the middle of a Milwaukee police chase
A red SUV blew through a red light and smashed into Rutherford and his yellow Dodge Charger.
A red SUV blew through a red light and smashed into Rutherford and his yellow Dodge Charger.
A red SUV blew through a red light and smashed into Rutherford and his yellow Dodge Charger.
An innocent bystander found himself caught in the middle of a police chase on Milwaukee's west side. It happened Tuesday night at the intersection of N. 35th Street and W. Lisbon Avenue.
Kasmier Rutherford, a local independent wrestler, was on his way to his other job when surveillance video shows what happened next. A red SUV blew through a red light. That car smashed into Rutherford and his yellow Dodge Charger.
12 News asked Rutherford if he remembered the moment.
"Not really," he replied.
His mom, though, said she was at their home just a few blocks away.
"I heard sirens, and I heard sirens. And the thing that came in my mind was, 'Oh my God, let my son be OK. Let him make it to work safely,'" Rutherford's mom Marcie Ward said Friday. "Maybe an hour later, I get the phone call saying that he was in a severe car accident."
What Ward and Rutherford didn't know were the circumstances. Milwaukee police said they attempted to stop the red SUV without plates near N. 26th Street and W. Vine Street. The car fled, and police started chasing it.
"Actually, we didn't know until the footage came up on TV, and that's how we found out what actually happened and found out that it was a high-speed chase," Ward said. "When I saw the video, I was just like, 'Will he make it through this?'"
Milwaukee police said officers arrested the driver, 21-year-old Jimmy Brown. The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office charged Brown with recklessly endangering safety and fleeing and resisting police.
Police said a passenger in the suspect vehicle, a 19-year-old woman, was taken to the hospital. She is expected to survive.
Ward would like to see fewer police chases and traffic calming measures along W. Lisbon Avenue. For the time being, though, she's grateful her son is alive, who is now home and resting from his injuries.
"I'm still breathing and everything. I still got that going for me. So my car is wrecked, but everybody tells me it's something that can be replaced. And I agree with that," Rutherford said.
He hopes to be back in the wrestling ring as soon as possible.
