Victor Steen
| Victor Steen | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 12, 1991 |
| Died | October 3, 2009 Pensacola |
| Parents | Cassandra Steen |
Victor Demarius Steen was a young male who was killed when struck by a Pensacola Police cruiser.
Steen was struck and killed by the cruiser of Pensacola Police Officer Jerald Ard while riding his bicycle in the Brownsville neighborhood of Pensacola. Officer Ard claims to have spotted Steen at an empty construction site around 1:50 AM and attempted to stop him for questioning. Ard pursued Steen in his police cruiser and attempted to fire a Taser weapon from the window of the moving cruiser. The chase ended when Steen was struck by the cruiser and dragged until the cruiser came to a stop at a median in an empty parking lot at the corner of Cervantes and R Streets. Steen was pronounced dead at the scene.
Effects on police policy
Steen's death triggered an internal review of departmental policies, and several changes were made in the months following Steen's death.
On October 9, 2009, the Department changed its Taser policy to specifically prohibit officers from firing the weapons from a moving vehicle or into a moving vehicle. On November 19, the Department altered its vehicle pursuit policy. The changes prohibit officers from conducting vehicular pursuits "through apartment complexes, yards, or other populated off-road locations" and caution officers to maintain distance from bicyclists and pedestrians so that "the injury risk will not be elevated by a vehicle's proximity to the suspect."
