Originally Posted by Frosstbyte

Are you people joking? Negligence requires a few things and, in most jurisdictions, one of which is that the injury is reasonably foreseeable to the person that they're trying to hold accountable. I think you'd have a very difficult time convincing an impartial jury (theoretically one who is not prejudiced against him simply because he's a criminal) that a news helicopter collision was proximately caused by the defendant's flight from police.

Furthermore, in most jurisdictions, an intervening negligent action severs liability for an injury arising out of an original negligent action. I'd say that one or both helicopter pilots clearly acted negligently (or perhaps even recklessly) which would prevent the fugitive from being held responsible.

While this is certainly a tragedy, it's really amazing to even think that the fugitive would have to answer for the mistakes of helicopter pilots who ought to know better. These people are, supposedly, experts operating equipment that they should know is dangerous. I feel very sorry for the victims and their families, but hold people responsible for their actions and their mistakes. The fugitive ran from police and by all means punish him to the full extent of the law. He didn't have a damn thing to do with how the helicopter pilots followed him or how good (or not, obviously) they are at their job.