After the Hook posted the dashboard camera video of a police pursuit which reached speeds as high as 85mph on a residential Rugby Road, Charlottesville police Chief Longo responded to concerns expressed in the article and by readers unsettled by the video which shows— contrary to early reports of a chase halted for safety— a chase that resulted in a spectacular accident which scalped a house but produced no injuries.

“By the Grace of God no one was injured,” says Longo, addressing the case Monday in a letter to the Hook accompanied by a copy of CPD pursuit policy.

Longo concedes that the pursuit raised a pair of concerns— particularly the speed— but that dry pavement, the late hour, and the absence of pedestrians weighed against letting the thief speed away into the night during the nearly 2:30am August 7 incident.

“I find the officer’s actions to have been reasonable based on the totality of the circumstance,” Longo wrote. “Had this occurred at 2:30 in the afternoon when traffic conditions were different, I may not have come to the same conclusion.”

The video-accompanying story, posted Friday, October 30, in which a nearly-killed homeowner takes a differing view, has been updated with Longo’s viewpoint.