FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A California man moved to Northwest Arkansas in July, starting a new chapter while also caring for his mom.
He had started building a life: Working, playing pickleball, and enjoying the change of pace in the South after leaving the Bay Area.
Then, 56-year-old David Pemberton's life was over in an instant after a suspect pursued by an Arkansas State Police (ASP) trooper hit him head-on.
His brother, Jim Pemberton, believes the pursuit caused David's death, but ASP says the suspect is the one to blame.
“They got the guy, but now my brother’s dead," Pemberton said. “He just didn't deserve to die in a ditch on the side of the road for just going about his day because of an overly aggressive police pursuit."
On Saturday, Jan. 13, in the middle of the afternoon, police say 20-year-old Noah Cargill was behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger.
Fayetteville police investigated the crash since it involved ASP within city limits.
The report said an ASP trooper spotted Cargill driving recklessly on North Rupple Road near West Wedington Drive.
The trooper flipped on his lights and sirens and started pursuing Cargill, following him onto West Chantilly Drive going 64 miles per hour.
Cargill wouldn't pull over.
The report says the top speed in the chase hit more than 100 miles per hour while heading south on North Rupple Road.
It says Cargill came close to hitting other drivers during the pursuit, which only ended when he hit David.
“I was at the scene with some family members, and we're looking around with roundabouts on either side of school apartment complexes, tons of traffic, I mean, I'm just trying to wrap my head around how that was deemed a safe pursuit," Pemberton said.
Pemberton combed through ASP's handbook, which includes pages on pursuit policies.
“So the officer has a duty to drive his or her vehicle in accordance with Arkansas law with due regard to the safety of all persons ... meaning that should be the most important thing, not apprehending the suspect, especially for a traffic violation, but the safety of all persons.”
Col. Mike Hagar, director of ASP and secretary of the Department of Public Safety, watched the dashcam footage, which has not been made public yet.
The Pemberton family also has not seen it yet.
Hagar says the sergeant who spotted Cargill on the road witnessed him driving fast and recklessly, putting everyone around him at risk.
“This person obviously was driving extremely recklessly, that all happened before the trooper ever attempted to intervene," Hagar said. "We had no reason to believe that this person was driving that way because the trooper was trying to stop him. It was the exact opposite."
Hagar says the trooper pursuing Cargill was in the middle of deciding whether to call it off or not and had alerted other officers nearby of the pursuit before the crash happened.
"So there's no way that we can know for sure why he was driving as reckless as he was, and there's no way that we could begin to know, if he would have stopped, had the trooper not tried to engage him and not tried to, you know, initiate that traffic stop, or some things we just can't know," Hagar said. "You know, in fairness, we're kind of in an impossible situation."
Pemberton says he thinks the ASP handbook on pursuits is too vague.
“It doesn't say like how many blocks a chase should go on how fast is too fast," Pemberton said. "I am pro-law enforcement. But I feel like if policies are not clear, not only the policy is not being clear, but just training.”
Hagar says in 2016, ASP started keeping detailed records on vehicle pursuits involving the agency.
He says from that point until Jan. 1 of this year, there were 3,725 pursuits, and there were zero innocent civilian deaths.
“This is exactly why we take the stance that we do, and we train our troopers the way we train them to get these people stopped before something like this happens," Hagar said. "You know, we would just simply ask that, you know, they focus the blame on the suspect, they focus the blame on the person that was in control of this situation. You know, our trooper was trying his best to fulfill his oath and protect the public from this, he was trying his best to prevent this from happening.”
As Cargill sat behind bars, David was laid to rest.
“He was my idol growing up, he was my big brother," Pemberton said. "He was my best friend as an adult.”
Pemberton says innocent civilian deaths connected to police pursuits are a problem across the country, and that's why he's started a petition to create awareness of it.
“I'm not attacking law enforcement in any way. I do want to see some change," Pemberton said. "People should be able to be on the road and not have to worry about a cop chasing somebody 100 miles per hour...I mean, really, if out of this, I can save one life, it's worth it. And my brother would be proud.”
After the crash, Cargill was booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree murder for Pemberton's death, fleeing police, and having a gun that was found in his car as a convicted felon.
A study looked at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records and found that in 2020, there were 455 people who died in crashes involving police pursuits in America.
That same data shows that between the years of 2015 through 2019, there were anywhere from 311-368 deaths per year related to police pursuits nationwide.
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