MONROE COUNTY, Tenn. — In a matter of seconds, a woman lost her career, her left arm and the love of her life. A suspect fleeing from police crashed into Chyenne Moses and her husband, Joe, as they drove home in Monroe County.
The crash happened several minutes after Corporal Brian Milsapps of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office started chasing a speeding vehicle. At one point, the chase reached speeds of 128 miles per hour.
According to documents, as Milsapps began to "reduce his speed and terminate the pursuit," the suspect crashed into Cheyenne and Joe.
"I don't remember anything else from that night point, until, really, waking up in the ambulance," she said. "I lost him. I lost my career. I lost most of my independence at that time."
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said 68 people, including Joe Moses, died in crashes involving a police pursuit since 2017. Another 250 people suffered serious injuries.
"They're pretty prevalent. I'm sure they happen a lot more than what even the public notices," said Mark Baughman, who spent more than 35 years working in law enforcement. "Some of them were not cut and dry. Some of them were a little iffy as to why they even pursued the individual."
The Monroe County Sheriff's Department defines a sustained, high-speed pursuit as one where a suspect tries to evade authorities by speeding up, taking evasive action and violating traffic laws after authorities activate their emergency lights and siren.
"Compliance is always the biggest thing for law enforcement officers, but the bad guys dictate what the cops are going to do," said Baughman.
They're only allowed when officers believe a serious offense committed like murder, rape, kidnapping or terrorism.
"Some particular agencies will pursue for lesser charges, some won't," said Baughman. "Most of them are, consistently are, simple felonies — something like egregious types of crimes ... Ultimately, the supervisors are the ones who's going to make that determination on discontinuing or continuing the pursuit."
The Knoxville Police Department and the Knox County Sheriff's Office have similar policies.
"It wasn't really something glaringly different in any of them, and i think that's probably because most law enforcement agencies have legal counsel. And that legal counsel reviews and approves that policy," said Baughman.
The biggest difference between pursuits is how they're carried out. In Monroe County, Milsapps was pursuing the driver involved in the crash that led to the death of Chyenne's husband for speeding.
The department said that he faced no discipline because he had violated no policies. They said he was not in active pursuit and was only attempting to catch up to the car.
Chyenne said she wishes it hadn't at all. She said she did not think it was worth her husband's life.
"The two big words out here always for law enforcement is, 'serve' and 'protect.' Well, serving is probably chasing somebody. And sometimes protecting is paramount, and you have to keep that in mind," said Baughman.
In most years, the state sees between six and nine fatal pursuits. Last year, the state saw 22 fatal pursuits. THP so far this year, 13 police pursuits have been fatal, and more than half happened in East Tennessee.