BABY LEFT IN A WRECK AFTER HIS FATHER FLED A POLICE CHASE — AND LIVED

Today, 1-year-old Diesel is smiling, running, and playing with his mother.

Last Thursday looked nothing like that.

Glendale police found him in the back seat of a smashed car in Fox Point, Wisconsin — no car seat, no shoes, covered in glass. Officers say his father, Steven Pokorny, had led a chase that reached about 97 miles per hour before the car crashed near Lake Drive. Police called off the pursuit. Then they found the wreck. The driver was gone. The baby was not.

Pokorny was wanted on domestic violence charges out of Racine, according to authorities. After the crash, they say he left the scene. He was found a short time later and booked into the Milwaukee County Jail. He faces charges that include recklessly endangering safety, child abandonment, child neglect, child abuse, and obstructing police.

Diesel’s mother, Kaylynn Brown, was at work. She told 12 News she had no idea Pokorny was driving around with their son.

“As a mom, you’re supposed to protect him, and I wasn’t there for him,” she said. “It’s scary you don’t know if your child is OK; someone who’s supposed to protect him wasn’t there to protect him.”

Body-camera video captured the child’s cries. Brown said that sound is what stays with her.

“It hurts, especially hearing the cries from the body camera footage.”

Diesel’s legs were cut from walking on broken glass in the back seat. His family called his survival a miracle. Brown said she plans to seek a restraining order and take other steps to keep her son safe. She has not spoken to Pokorny since the arrest.

A baby who should have been buckled in a seat was found standing in glass. A week later he is back in his mother’s arms. That is the whole distance between a chase that should never have included a child — and a living room where he can play again.

Source: WISN 12 News interview with Kaylynn Brown; Glendale and Fox Point police accounts; criminal complaint details as reported by FOX6 Milwaukee.