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Mashpee Police: Chase Should Have Ended Before Deadly Crash

What to Know

  • Kevin Quinn and Mickey Rivera were killed in a head-on crash in Cotuit; Jocelyn Goyette died later from her injuries.
  • Quinn, a Marine veteran, was on his way home from visiting his wife Kara and newborn daughter Logan at Cape Cod Hospital.
  • Officers were pursuing Rivera. Thursday, a Mashpee Police report found they should have ended the chase before the crash.

Police on Cape Cod have determined that officers should have ended a chase before a crash that resulted in the deaths of three people.

Officers from Mashpee, Massachusetts, were pursuing a car driven by 22-year-old Mickey Rivera of Fall River when it crashed head-on into an SUV on July 28. Rivera and the SUV's driver, 32-year-old Kevin Quinn of Mashpee, died in the collision on Route 28 in Cotuit. Rivera's passenger, 24-year-old Jocelyn Goyette of New Bedford, later died at a hospital in Boston.

Thursday, the Mashpee Police Department released the results of a report that found officers should have stopped chasing Rivera, who reached 100 miles an hour and crossed over the center lane, hitting Quinn's SUV. Even though the car was out of sight of the pursuing officers when it crashed, police say the risk outweighed the need to arrest Rivera.

After the crash, prosecutors said Rivera should not have been released earlier this year when he was charged with operating under the influence.

Quinn, a Marine veteran who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, was returning home from a hospital visit with his wife, Kara, and their first child, Logan, who had been born on Wednesday. He was expected to return to Cape Cod Hospital on Saturday morning to bring home his wife and daughter, according to a GoFundMe page set up for the family.

"He was a very loving son, an awesome husband, and was so proud to be a dad," said Janet Quinn, Kevin's mother, at a roadside memorial unveiling a cross in her son's memory. "That truly will be his legacy, his daughter."

Friends of Quinn who placed American flags on the road where he was killed in his 2012 GMC SUV said they had few words to describe the tragedy.

"I just felt like I got hit in the chest with a sledgehammer," family friend Rob Dinan said. "I just couldn't believe it.

Rivera had a history of prior offenses, according to law enforcement officials. In March of 2015, he was charged with armed and masked home invasion, armed assault and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the stabbing of two women in Taunton involving several different defendants. The case against Rivera was dismissed because the victims could not identify him.

He was also due back in court the week of the crash on armed robbery and witness intimidation charges out of Fall River, also dating back to 2015. He was free on bail at the time of the accident after his bail was recently lowered.

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