Call it a tragic case of poor decision-making all around.

The word senseless doesn't do justice to the chain of events that began in a 7-Eleven parking lot with a police pursuit and ended several miles away with a mutilated Pontiac Sunfire and the deaths of two Petersburg teens.

In the aftermath, several things should be clear:

When a squad car flashes its blue lights and sounds its siren behind you, pull over and assume a posture as nonthreatening as possible.

That Javon Butts, 19, and Donte Howlett, 18, did not pull over must be a source of anguish for their family and friends.

Perhaps for Butts -- whose father said he didn't have a driver's license -- this was a moment of panic born of teenage immaturity. We can only speculate and pray for the recovery of the 16-year-old girl seriously injured when the compact car slammed into a tree.

Tuesday's tragedy began 1:21 a.m. with a call to a 7-Eleven for, of all things, shoplifting.

As it turns out, the teens in the Sunfire were not the suspects; store surveillance cameras cleared them. But the officer responding to the call said the Sunfire almost backed into his vehicle in the store parking lot.

The pursuit began. Two lives ended. And over what?

Nothing in a 7-Eleven is worth a human life.

A squad car should respond with dispatch to an armed robbery at a convenience store. But the heist of a bag of Skittles, a pack of beef jerky, a Big Gulp or whatever should be of no urgency to law enforcement, especially in a store with surveillance cameras.

So a shoplifting call turned into a police pursuit, when simply getting the license tag number would do. And again, you have to question the decision-making.

Police chases, or running police vehicles at high speed, should be avoided unless absolutely necessary because of the unpredictability of pursuits and the potential harm to bystanders. Petersburg knows this all too well.

Two summers ago, a Petersburg police officer speeding to a non-emergency call without a siren or lights broadsided the car of a city couple. Robert Allen, 75, and his wife Juanita, 71, died less than a block from home.

The department has additional history that might make some motorists leery of police.

In October 2003, two Petersburg police officers stopped a driver to question him about a hit-and-run incident. The driver, Lamont Cortez Koonce, ran away and was tackled, doused with pepper spray and kicked and stomped into a coma as he lay motionless.

Police officer Michael A. Tweedy -- who blamed his aggressive demeanor on the use of anabolic steroids -- pleaded guilty to depriving Koonce of his civil rights and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Relations between the police and a community are dicey enough without this sort of baggage. Which makes sound decision-making by all parties crucial.

You shouldn't drive without a license. Young motorists should be schooled in the proper etiquette of complying with police.

And the Petersburg Police Department, before sending a squad car to another shoplifting call, should revisit both its pursuit policy and its priorities.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or mwilliams@timesdispatch.com.