Family of Delco woman killed by man fleeing police wins $4.5 million wrongful-death settlement

The family of a Delaware County woman who was killed by a Chester man fleeing police during a high-speed pursuit in 2020 was awarded $4.5 million in a wrongful-death settlement in federal court.

Attorneys representing the family of Angel McIntyre, 18, said she died during a “needless, high-speed police pursuit improperly conducted” by officers from Collingdale and Darby who had been chasing Anthony Jones for traffic violations because he made an illegal left turn at a red light and was driving with a broken brake light.

Jones fled a traffic stop, struck a police car, and led pursuing officers on a chase before crashing into a Honda Civic that McIntyre was riding in.

The officers disregarded the danger of the pursuit, which spanned just over two miles at speeds that topped 90 mph, according to the lawsuit. Their department supervisors, the suit said, were “deliberately indifferent to those risks and failed to properly train and supervise their police officers.”

Attorneys for McIntyre declined to comment Thursday on the settlement, reached April 29 and approved by U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson. Attorneys for Collingdale and Darby did not immediately return requests for comment.

McIntyre was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, on MacDade Boulevard in Collingdale. Her boyfriend, Matthew Munafo, 24, sustained serious injuries, including a skull fracture, after being thrown 50 feet from the Honda Civic when Jones’ vehicle struck it.

Jones, 30, was convicted of third-degree murder last spring, and is serving a 17- to 24-year sentence in state prison.

In court filings, attorneys for the boroughs and the officers involved in the pursuit denied any wrongdoing, saying Jones alone was responsible for McIntyre’s death.

They said the pursuit was proper because Jones had first fled a traffic stop by an officer, and then fled the scene of a collision with a police vehicle during his escape.

On the night of the crash, Munafo and McIntyre were on their way to a friend’s house in Upper Chichester after spending the day at Hog Island in South Philadelphia, according to the suit.

About the same time, Jones was driving a Ford Escape through Delaware County while smoking marijuana, and after having taken a pill he bought from a drug dealer earlier that day, according to evidence presented at his criminal trial.

In the car with him were his three young children, including an infant, as well as a bag of illegal guns and ammunition.

Around 1 a.m., officers in Collingdale spotted Jones driving erratically, and saw that one of the vehicle’s tail lights was out. When the officers signaled for Jones to stop, he pulled into a nearby McDonald’s on MacDade Boulevard, prosecutors said.

As a uniformed Collingdale officer approached Jones’ vehicle, Jones sped away, striking another police vehicle that had pulled into the parking lot. Jones barreled down MacDade Boulevard, ignoring his passengers’ urging him to slow down or pull over, prosecutors said at trial.

Jones drove through six red lights as he tried to escape. As he sped through the intersection of MacDade and West Oak Lane in Glenolden, he crashed into Munafo’s Honda Civic.

Jones limped away from the scene, abandoning his children, prosecutors said. He tried to flee on foot, but was taken into custody nearby by the officers pursuing him.

Baylson, the judge in the civil suit, later ruled that although the officers involved in the pursuit did not intend to harm McIntyre or Munafo, there was no evidence that supervisors in their respective departments had instituted training or policy reforms on car chases after earlier, similarly dangerous pursuits by their officers.

The two departments “failed to provide any training on when or how to conduct vehicle pursuits beyond, at most ... handing officers hundreds of pages of police procedure, which included the pursuit policy, and telling them to read it,” Baylson wrote.

Collingdale’s policy prohibits officers from chasing someone over a summary violation, such as a broken tail light, unless the person poses a danger to the public, according to court filings. Darby’s policy is similar, but further stipulates that only officers trained in pursuits can initiate them.

During the lawsuit, Darby officials disclosed that they failed to report any previous chases that violated the department’s written policy to a statewide database as required by law, according to court filings. Collingdale had reported four.

An expert hired by the McIntyre family’s attorney found that about 80% of Collingdale’s chases violated its written policies.

That “purported inaction” after these pursuits, the judge wrote, “reinforces an inference of approval.”