Stolen East St. Louis police car causes fatal crash

But the Belleville woman, 41, had turned things around as an adult. She graduated from college and was working as a therapist with veterans while studying for a doctorate. In recent days, she had married and honeymooned in the Smoky Mountains.

But Quarles-Gaston's life took a tragic turn Wednesday morning when a stolen police car crashed into her car. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

"She's a fantastic person, a beautiful spirit, always had others' best interests in mind," her grief-stricken husband of two weeks, Vince Gaston, said Wednesday evening. "She was a person who loved her life."

Police said the driver at fault in the crash was traveling in excess of 100 mph when he plowed into the back of two vehicles. Quarles-Gaston, who was on her way to work as a therapist with the Department of Veterans Affairs' housing program in East St. Louis, was in one of the cars.

Lt. David Wasmuth, of the Illinois State Police, said his office was seeking charges against the driver of the stolen police car, described only as a man in his 40s. The Illinois State Police is handling the investigation because it involves an East St. Louis police vehicle.

East St. Louis Assistant Police Chief R.O. Ike said the incident started just after 8 a.m. at 80th and State streets when police were called to escort a man off a Metro bus because he refused to pay the fare. The man appeared to be intoxicated or high on drugs. Ike said an officer was trying to get the man off the bus when the man hopped into the officer's car.

Minutes later, the suspect crashed the police car into two cars at 70th and State streets. A Honda driven by an unidentified man was pushed off the road. A white sedan driven by Quarles-Gaston was pushed several feet into a utility pole. She died at the scene.

"That's one of the worse crashes I've ever seen," Wasmuth said, adding that Quarles-Gaston was wearing a seat belt and the air bags in her car deployed. "She had no chance."

Phillis Oliver, who lives on State Street, said the crash in front of her home 'sounded like a bomb."

"My husband thought our furnace exploded," she said. "It was so loud."

She said she looked outside and saw police pull a man out of the police car and onto the ground.

The man who stole the police car and the driver of the Honda were taken to St. Louis University Hospital for treatment.

Police said there was no pursuit at the time of the crash. The Illinois State Police said evidence at the scene showed the crash happened as the speed of the stolen cruiser exceeded 100 mph.

The incident brought up questions of protocol because the officer apparently left his patrol car running with the keys in the ignition while responding to the incident on the bus.

Wasmuth said it's not uncommon for officers to leave their cars running while on service calls.

Ike said his department has no policy telling officers to shut off their patrol cars when on calls.

East St. Louis police Capt. Bobby Cole said some cars in the department's fleet are equipped with "lockout" technology to prevent similar thefts.

"Some cars do, and some cars don't," he said. "We're in the preliminary stages of our internal investigation, so it would be premature to speculate on what happened out there."

Cole said the officer was sent home after the crash, but no administrative actions were being taken against him. The officer has been with the department for more than 15 years.

Relatives said Quarles-Gaston had three sons. In 1986, when Quarles-Gaston was in middle school, she alleged that her son Christopher was the product of a sexual encounter with an assistant principal at her middle school. Joseph Hayes, a longtime school administrator in East St. Louis, was later fired, and DNA testing showed he probably was the boy's father.

Christopher Quarles died in 2003 at 17 after suffering an aneurysm during a pickup basketball game in Belleville.

Quarles-Gaston's sister, Merinda Quarles-Watson, 42, of Belleville, said her sister started a group called Christopher Ministries after her son's death. The group, mostly her family and friends, helped support families who lost a child by providing meals or money to pay for burial clothing.

"We would give so much money a month, just to keep the organization going, just so we could give back some of the support we got when we lost her son," she said.

She said that for years, her sister worked with battered women in East St. Louis before moving on to the VA. That's where she met her husband, an addiction therapist.

"My sister hasn't dated since her son died," Quarles-Watson said. "For the first time in her life, she found that person."

In addition to being a newlywed, relatives said Quarles-Gaston was working on a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from an online university.

Quarles-Watson said her mom named her sister after actor Maximilian Schell. Her mom wanted a boy, but still loved the name, so she gave her the middle name "LeShelle."

Family members gathered Wednesday night at Quarles-Gaston's home in Belleville. Her youngest son, Jay Quarles, 21, said his mother "was very kind-hearted, loving, honest, trustworthy, hard-working, and the most goal-oriented woman you'd ever meet."

Police Capt. Cole said Quarles-Gaston had been a jailer with the Police Department. "She was a nice woman," he recalled.

He said the crash caused such grief in the department that he sent the whole shift of officers home and called in replacements.

Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.