Family fights back tears remembering 2 children, grandmother killed in chase

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — Our Channel 2 Action News investigation confirmed College Park police temporarily changed their pursuit policy.

They set specific types of crimes to go after suspects.

Channel 2's Tom Jones sat down with a family who had lost their two kids and grandmother in a police chase.

Now, the family wants to know if the stolen car officers were after had GPS technology.

The Partridges say this has taken a heavy toll on them.

[ VIDEO: College Park police department changes pursuit policy ]

"One main question is why did this have to happen," mother Joi Partridge said. "It's just a big why."
 
Partridge and her husband Douglas want to know why and what went into a decision by College Park police to chase a stolen car into Atlanta.
               
That's where officers say the suspect blindsided and crashed into 75-year-old Dorothy Wright and her two grandchildren, 12-year-old Cameron Costner and 6-year-old Layla Partridge.
               
The three were headed to church.
 
"We want to know what the heck happened. Where we lost a whole family going to church," father Douglas Partridge said.
 
The Partridges say the chase wasn't worth the lives lost.
 
They wonder if the stolen car had technology that could have aided police instead of them chasing it.
 
"That possibly has GPS Onstar. They could have easily tracked this car down instead of chasing it at high speeds like this," Joi said.
               
The mother also says it just wasn't safe chasing a stolen car into a residential area.
 
"If it wasn't my mom, it could have been kids or people just crossing the street," Joi said.
               
Police have said they believed they were chasing someone who may have been involved in a forcible felony.
               
The Partridges say it still wasn't worth the lives lost.
 
"They wiped my whole bloodline from me," Joi said. "They wiped my mom and my only two kids."

The Partridges say they are looking into hiring their own independent investigator to dig into everything that happened surrounding this crash.

Police continue searching for the suspect.

WSBTV