CEDAR RAPIDS – A convicted felon being chased by police in Cedar Rapids this weekend slammed into the vehicle of a city worker, causing his death.
A Cedar Rapids police officer attempted to stop a red truck near 10th Street and 8th Avenue SW for a registration violation at approximately 8:39 AM on April 17. The driver of the truck, 47-year-old Sean Chadwick Lawson, drove through the Hawkeye Oil parking lot and proceeded eastbound on 8th Avenue SW. The suspect then made a right hand turn into the 800 block alley between 8th Street and 9th Street SW and proceeded to the railroad tracks before he came out behind 1041 10th Street SW and turned onto 9th Street SW. The suspect driver accelerated at a high rate of speed, police said, southbound on 9th Street SW. The officer, who was more than a block behind the vehicle, witnessed the suspect vehicle run a stop sign at 15th Avenue and 9th Street SW. The suspect then ran the stop sign at 16th Avenue and 9th Street SW and struck the side of a City of Cedar Rapids Water Department vehicle that was eastbound on 16th Avenue SW.
The suspect driver crashed into the side of the Water Department vehicle, causing the City vehicle to roll. The City employee, 35-year old Stephen Justin Cook, was ejected from the vehicle and was seriously injured. He was transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and died this weekend. The suspect driver sustained non-life threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital.
The crash occurred at approximately 8:40 AM. The police pursuit was about six blocks. Chadwick now faces a vehicular homicide charge.
The accident remains under investigation. Chadwick was wanted on felony second degree theft charges, court records show, a crime he has already been found guilty of years ago.
Found guilty years ago, but, here he is on the streets killing a innocent person.