The death of an elderly man in Rochester is triggering renewed conversation about Raise the Age and similar laws.

This comes after he was involved in a car crash with a 17-year-old dubbed a "career criminal" by Rochester's Police Chief David Smith during a police pursuit.

Police say Thomas Chase, 92, died at the scene on Thursday.

Police say the teenager that crashed into his vehicle was on parole for burglary. 

In the early months of 2023, they say he was arrested for at least a dozen burglaries across the city of Rochester, where stolen vehicles were used to crash into storefronts and steal from inside.

Police add that while on parole, the teen was arrested at the end of July in Erie County following a pursuit in a stolen vehicle. They also say he lied at the scene about his age and the 18-year-old passenger was arrested in a nearby town on charges related to a stolen vehicle.

Now, many want to know why he was not in custody.

"This seems to be an issue in the judicial system regardless of what laws were on the books," said Rochester City Council Member Mary Lupien. "I checked this out with somebody who works in the legal system and their opinion was the second parole violation. They had the discretion to hold him and so that made me very curious as to what really happened." 

“This isn't about bail reform," Lupien added. "Judges and parole officers had the discretion to detain him, but they chose not to. It's about the decisions made, not the laws on the books."

Was it Raise the Age? Bail reform? The discretion given to the judges involved in the 17-year-old's court cases? Or something else that allowed him to be out on the streets last week?

"This is not just Raise the Age, this is bail reform,” said Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter. “This is Less Is More, when we're talking about parolees, right? He's on parole. That means he should be detained in a state prison. Yet he's out causing havoc in our communities. So it takes all of the reforms, not just Raise the Age. So we've got to concentrate on all of them.”

Baxter feared something like this would happen since the laws started changing over the last five years.

"The culture was created for this lawlessness at the legislative level that made all these drastic changes in Albany,” he said. 

Baxter says the laws are confusing and need tweaking.

"My suggestion on the Consortium for Safe Communities is, let's clean all this up and come up with a simple standard — a dangerousness standard,” said Baxter. “If people in our community are doing those things, then let's hold them, detain them long enough to get them the services needed to stabilize their life, stabilize the victim's life and then get them back into society in a logical way."

Lupien has a different take.

"If we're using this case as the example, I don't think tweaking the laws does the job,” she said. “I think it's a red herring to be focusing on the laws, because ultimately, catching them and putting them in jail, OK it gets a kid off the street, for how long, and what happens they get reintroduced back to this community? We're worse off." 

"The narrative is that these kids don't care about the harm they're causing the community," Lupien said. "But have we ever stopped to think about if they feel the community cares about what happens to them? When people feel heard and understood, they are more likely to accept being influenced. Right now, it's the gangs and their peers who are supporting them. We need to be doing a much better job of engaging with them and doing a better sales pitch for the light instead of the dark."

Both agree this is something that never should have happened.

"It's not clean and that's what's creating this chaos and this confusion,” said Baxter. “Everyone’s able to point fingers at everyone else. ‘Well, you're not doing your job.’ Well, we as a society are not doing our job. We're not detaining people that are dangerous or repeating offenses over and over. Whether they're young, old [or on] parole, we've got to go back to the drawing board and just clean all this up. But right now, we have a lot of confusion in a lot of our laws. We have a lot of confusion in a lot of our systems. And I put that back where it belongs. These are New York state laws. Legislators create these laws.”

A spokesperson from Gov. Kathy Hochul's office released a statement to Spectrum News 1, saying:

"Our hearts are with the loved ones of Thomas Chase as they mourn this tragic loss. Governor Hochul's top priority is to keep New Yorkers safe, which is why she has worked with the Legislature to deliver record funding to combat gun crimes and car thefts, crack down on repeat offenders, and further expand the types of cases where judges have the discretion to set bail. Our administration will continue working with law enforcement and local officials to improve the criminal justice system, combat violence, and strengthen public safety across New York."

New York State's Raise the Age legislation changes the age of criminal responsibility to 18 years of age. The state website adds, "New York was previously one of only two states that automatically prosecuted 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. This injustice unfairly punished youth and prevented them from receiving the services they need to rehabilitate themselves and re-integrate into their communities. New York’s youth who commit non-violent crimes will now receive age-appropriate housing and programming to lower their risk of re-offense."