Texas authorities investigating why officer responding to a robbery had a man in his back seat before crash that killed mom and son

Almost five days after one of its officers was involved in a fatal crash that claimed the lives of a mother and her teenage son on his birthday, the Missouri City Police Department in Texas cannot explain why the officer was responding to a call and why a man was found in the back seat of his vehicle hours after the crash.

According to police, the mother and son, identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as Angela and Mason Stewart, 16, were exiting a parking lot at about 8:45 p.m. Thursday when the officer, who police said was responding to a report of a robbery, slammed into their car. Mason Stewart was driving, the public safety department said. He and his mother were pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said Angela was 53, but public records and the Fort Bend County Medical Examiner’s Office said she was 52, and her birthday is July 5. The officer was taken to a hospital and has since been released.

More than two hours after the crash, police said, the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the crash, found a man in the back seat of the patrol car. The man was taken to a hospital.

In an interview Monday, Derrick Spencer, a Missouri City police detective and public information officer, said the man’s condition was not known and his identity was not being disclosed.

“Last I heard Friday morning, he was being taken into surgery,” Spencer said. “We have not received an update on his condition.”

On Tuesday, a detective from the police department said he was still in the hospital.

It is unclear why the man was there and why the officer would have responded to a call of a robbery in progress if he had someone in his back seat. Spencer said that is under investigation, as is whether the officer had been dispatched to respond to the reported robbery or whether he had headed there on his own.

Angela Stewart and her son Mason.via KPRC

At a news conference Friday, Chief Brandon Harris said it was not part of department policy for an officer to respond to a scene if they had someone in the back seat of their vehicle. He could not answer whether the man had been in custody at the time of the crash.

“The circumstances revolving around why he was in the car and how he got in the car are still under investigation,” Harris said.

Harris said that at approximately 8:42 p.m., police received a call from a victim who said they had been approached at an ATM not far from the crash site by an armed man demanding money. The suspect fled in a silver Honda after taking $200 from the victim, who followed the suspect as he was talking to 911 operators, police said. The officer who crashed into Angela and Mason Stewart had been responding to that call, according to police.

Harris and Spencer declined to identify the officer other than to say he has worked in law enforcement for three years, including less than a year with the Missouri City Police Department. Missouri City is a suburb of Houston. They said it was not clear whether the officer had his lights or sirens activated before the crash. Harris said hours of body camera and dash camera video need to be reviewed to determine that.

Both said that as part of the department’s policy, officers have discretion as to when to turn on their lights and sirens. An officer, for instance, might choose not to turn them on so that a suspect won’t have time to flee.

Detective Michael Medina said Tuesday that the officer is on administrative leave while the police department conducts an internal investigation concerning its policies and procedures.

Rodney Stewart told reporters at the scene Friday that after his wife and son did not come home from the store, he located them by tracking his son’s cellphone. When he arrived near the scene, he said he told police that it was his car and his family that had been involved in the crash and an officer informed him that they were dead. Rodney Stewart said police had not provided details then about the crash other than to get his identification and information about his son, whose ID they apparently could not retrieve.

“They just kept me from going to the scene and one of the officers told me that they were gone,” he told reporters.

A woman who was also at the scene with him Friday cried as she told reporters that she did not know how she was supposed to finish a capstone project she has been working on to graduate after such devastating losses.

“My mother will never see me walk across the stage,” she said. “After working so hard to get my freaking doctorate, she will never see me.”

Rodney Stewart and others in his family declined a request for an interview Monday evening.

The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to emails and phone messages seeking more information.

Janelle Griffith is a national reporter for NBC News focusing on issues of race and policing.