GARY, Ind. - Bleeding and disoriented after being thrown from a car in a crash, 17-year-old Darius Moore managed to climb a steep embankment in the darkness and walk a quarter-mile to find help. When police arrived, Moore says, he asked them to look for his buddies who had been in the backseat.
"He says he had two other guys with him," an unidentified Gary officer said over the radio. "They might still be in the car. You might want to check."
But police did not find Brandon Smith and Dominique Green, both 18. Instead, Smith's father discovered them dead in the weeds after the sun came up, six hours after the 1:30 a.m. crash Sept. 15. He said the bodies were 15 to 20 feet from the wreck.
The coroner said the young men died instantly, meaning it would have made no difference if police had found them that night. But two weeks later, Arthur Smith is asking why police didn't do more to look for his son and the other teenager when authorities knew they might be critically injured.
"The point is, you had ample enough opportunity to do your job," said Smith, who has called for the officers to be fired.
Gary Police Cmdr. Sam Roberts said the circumstances were being investigated. If the officers are found to have acted improperly, they could be reprimanded, he said.
Police Chief Thomas Houston has said his officers received conflicting information regarding whether anyone had been left behind at the accident scene. The dispatch tapes indicate officers did know, but Roberts said they revealed only part of the picture.
Moore and his front-seat passenger, DeAndre Anderson, 17, who also survived the wreck, had blood-alcohol concentrations of 0.05 and 0.09 percent, police have said. They have not said which teen had which level. Indiana's legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent, and both teens are under the drinking age of 21.
Roberts said police expected to submit their report next week to the prosecutor's office, which will decide whether to file charges.
The four high school students were returning home after a hip-hop show. Moore was driving on a bridge over Interstate 80/94 when the car veered over a concrete median, jumped the sidewalk, went through a rail and hurtled into a wooded area. An officer estimated the car flipped 15 times.
Smith said he didn't know anything was wrong until Anderson's mother knocked on his door hours after the crash to say the teenagers were missing. He said he drove to the accident site just to see what had happened, not really looking for his son.
Smith said he spotted his son's body lying face up over a fallen tree, then saw Green's body. He said he could not understand how police missed them, especially because his son was 6-foot-3.
Smith said police should not hide behind the coroner's finding that his son died instantly.
"I pray to God he did," Smith said. "For me to think he laid down there six hours and suffered - no, that's inconceivable."