Woman who fled in vehicle from Kent Police dies from injuries

A 32-year-old woman has died from injuries suffered when she crashed into another vehicle Feb. 2 while fleeing from Kent Police.

Christina Ammann died Feb. 19 from blunt force injury to the head and neck, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. Ammann had been on life support at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to a Facebook post by a friend of Ammann. The friend also said Ammann had three children.

“The fact that she took reckless actions that resulted in her death does not change the fact that her family has suffered the loss of a loved one,” Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said in a news release. “The loss of her life is a tragedy and we humbly offer our condolences to her family.”

Officers responded to a 911 call about a woman using a stolen identification card and attempting to cash a fraudulent check at the Safeway store, 210 Washington Ave. S., according to police. The woman drove away as officers arrived at the store. Officers located her a short time later and attempted to pull her over. She quickly accelerated and a pursuit ensued.

Officers deployed spike strips and tried to position their vehicles for a pursuit intervention technique (PIT) in efforts to stop Ammann, but she maneuvered around the spike strips and took to driving erratically to avoid being stopped.

While Ammann continued to flee west on South 212th Street, she cut across the center divider lines and drove into oncoming traffic, colliding head-on with another vehicle near Frager Road South.

Officers immediately provided life-saving efforts, including attempting to use an AED until medics arrived to stabilize Ammann and transported her to Harborview. They also rendered aid to the male driver whose vehicle was struck head-on. At the same time, officers worked quickly to extinguish a fire that had ignited on the woman’s vehicle. The man who was in the other vehicle remains in stable condition with serious injuries, according to police.

Once the woman’s identity was later confirmed, officers learned that she had an outstanding $100,000 felony warrant for robbery. Additionally, it was discovered that Kent officers had arrested her a week prior. In that incident, officers successfully executed a PIT and stopped her vehicle. She was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and or drugs and failure to comply. She was not injured.

The Kent Police Command Staff reviewed the Feb. 2 incident as is standard procedure with all pursuits. The staff determined that the actions of the officers involved in the apprehension of Ammann were consistent with state law and department policy, according to the news release.

The estimated top speeds of the vehicle driven by Ammann reached 64 mph, but were well below that for most of the pursuit. It was relatively early on Saturday morning, traffic was light and the roads were bare and dry.

“Our officers face these type of difficult circumstances on a daily basis and the majority of the time the outcome is that suspects follow officer orders and are taken into custody safely,” Padilla said. “Officers swear an oath to uphold the laws of our state and protect the public and that’s what they were doing. It is unfortunate that the female’s decisions in this incident led to her death. Nobody wanted this heartbreaking outcome.”