IT WAS the kind of night that drove people outdoors, the hour late enough that homework and dinner were done, the dusky sky clear enough to give a brief respite from the week's incessant rain.
In Feltonville, Latoya Smith plopped her baby in a stroller and sat on the stoop outside her rowhouse on 3rd Street near Annsbury. Two girls shared Blow Pops and played jump-rope and hand-clapping games on the sidewalk.
A mile away that Wednesday evening, a man climbed on his motorcycle parked at Fisher and Rising Sun avenues. Two young thugs watched, their minds on mayhem.
Though just 18 and 20, respectively, Donta Cradock and Ivan Rodriguez already had racked up 13 arrests between them. And though they were wanted on bench warrants, they had no plans to lie low.
Still, no one was expecting the catastrophic carnage that would unfold only minutes later.
Fleeing police after allegedly stealing the motorcycle at gunpoint, Cradock plowed his car into Smith's stoop, killing the three children - ages 7, 6 and 11 months - and critically injuring Smith. Yesterday, relatives still reeling from the previous night's horrors learned that Smith, 22, had succumbed to her injuries, too.
With citizens and vehicle-safety advocates questioning whether a police pursuit preceded the tragedy, police officials hurried to quell such criticisms, saying that the incident never evolved into a pursuit. They even took the unusual step of playing police-radio communication before the crash to demonstrate that no pursuit had occurred. (See accompanying story, Next Page.)
"In this situation, it did not get to that point," Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. "He's [Cradock] the one who killed those people. No one else but him. It was reckless. Hopefully after this is over, we won't see him on the street anymore."
Still, Ramsey added, a pursuit would have been justified in this case. Departmental policy allows pursuit if an officer believes it will prevent someone's death or serious injury, or if it's necessary to nab someone who committed or tried to commit a violent felony or who possesses a weapon.
Road-safety advocates AAA issued two statements yesterday, raising pursuit concerns. In the first, it called for an inquiry into the police pursuit. But after police officials denied a pursuit had taken place, a spokeswoman amended the statement to: "Philadelphia Police say an officer was following the suspect, but not in 'hot pursuit.' Nonetheless, something went horribly wrong when the suspect crashed in a group of innocent bystanders - and many questions have yet to be answered."
Ramsey and Capt. James Clark tried to answer those questions during a crowded news conference yesterday morning.
They said that the saga started just before 7:30 p.m., when Cradock and Rodriguez cruised in a borrowed silver Pontiac up to the unsuspecting biker, flashed a .357 Magnum and allegedly demanded the man's bike. Rodriguez hopped on the Yamaha and sped off, while Cradock fled in the Pontiac toward Roosevelt Boulevard, Clark said.
Neither noticed the Good Samaritan who quietly followed Cradock. On the Boulevard, the Samaritan flagged down an officer on routine patrol, told him of the robbery and pointed out the Pontiac, Clark said.
The veteran officer surreptitiously followed Cradock south on the Boulevard, as Cradock weaved from the outer to inner lanes, until Cradock stopped in traffic near 4th Street, which merges with 3rd at the intersection. The patrolman, a couple of cars back, instructed Cradock over a loudspeaker to get out of the vehicle, police said.
Instead, Cradock jumped the median, turned left and sped down 3rd Street, striking some other vehicles along the way.
Trapped in the traffic, the officer couldn't initiate pursuit, Ramsey said. But he saw Cradock turn down 3rd Street and soon followed, searching down side streets as he tried to relocate his quarry.
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