'It doesn't seem real:' Girl, 13, recounts being hit during high-speed police chase in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Thirteen-year-old Riahna Tiggett is looking for answers after she and her friend were run over during a high-speed pursuit that ended in Philadelphia's Germantown section on Tuesday night.
"It doesn't seem real," Tiggett told Action News.
Her friend, 12-year-old Corey Leonard, underwent his second surgery late Wednesday night at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children.
The incident began as a traffic stop on the Schuylkill Expressway and ended in the crash along the 5200 block of Morris Street.
Tiggett and Leonard had just exited a bus when two suspects, identified as Renaldo Robichaw and James Adamsm, came speeding down the block with Pennsylvania State Police on their tail.
Police said one suspect threw a gun out of the vehicle during the chase, but Philadelphia officers were able to recover the weapon.
The suspects' silver Hyundai Entourage crashed into a parked car along Morris Street, which then struck the young children.
"The car swerved onto the pavement. When I tried to run, I fell and hit my face on the railing. When I tried to get back up, that's when a car ran over my foot," said Tiggett. "As I was screaming my friend's name, he wasn't responding."
Action News was there as the Tiggett, nursing a broken ankle, was rushed by ambulance to Einstein Medical Center.
Tiggett said Leonard bore the brunt of the impact.
"I was like, 'I think he didn't make it,'" Tiggett said.
Leonard's grandmother, Dawn Bennett, told Action News her grandson suffered a broken tibia, hip and pelvis.
"How could this possibly happen in Philadelphia at that time of the day to that child, this is a very vibrant child, full of life who will have to have multiple surgeries, extensive rehab, learn how to walk again," Bennett said.
Robichaw and Adamsm were taken into custody.
Now, the families of Riahna Tiggett and Corey Leonard are trying to make sense of why a high-speed chase was necessary, adding that this could have been avoided.
"We're trying to understand and wrap our heads around why there was a high speed chase through a residential area where there are a lot of children," Bennett said.
Investigators have not yet said what led to the traffic stop.
