A Car Chase Leaves Him Dead – A Year Later, The Family is Still Haunted by Unanswered Questions

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When speeds surpassed 100 mph in a car chase on April 17, 2021, a supervisor called off the chase of 39-year-old Malik Ali Malik. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was attempting to arrest Malik on outstanding warrants issued by the Monroe Circuit Court.

However, moments after the chase was called off, a deputy who spotted Malik in a 2021 Kia Sportage began to pursue him at speeds of about 70 mph on the 50-mph, two-lane highway.

The speeding SUV struck a tree head on four seconds after veering off Ind. 45 onto Dinsmore Road in Bloomington, Indiana. The car burst into flames. It is likely Malik died instantly due to hypoxia, which is when there is lack of oxygen to the lungs. This was caused by the flash fire that consumed Malik’s vehicle upon impact. 

WFHB spoke with Malik’s family on how they have been coping almost one year after the accident happened. 

“We weren’t together, but I talked to him like 20 times a day and obviously he’s a consistent part of our life because we have the kids. He was a really good guy. Not saying he didn’t make mistakes, but he was a really good guy,” says Barbara, mother of Malik’s two biological children, Malik, aged 14, and Aaliyah, aged 11. 

Malik was also father to Beyoncé, Barbara’s 18-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Even though she and Malik were no longer together, Barbara noted they were amicable co-parents. Losing Malik meant she no longer had that support for her children. 

Barbara says it’s hard to watch the dashcam footage of the incident, especially once the car had blown up. Five minutes after a deputy reported in a radio dispatch that the car was on fire, it was reported that the vehicle had exploded.

Barbara was especially struck by the moments after the car caught fire and Officer Moxley still had his gun drawn for a few minutes before putting it away. Barbara and Beyoncé felt it was obvious at that point that the person in the car either needed immediate help or had not made it. 

“Somebody had approached Officer Moxley and said there’s no way he’s alive in there. And he was like, ‘Oh, no, he’s not.’ But his gun was still drawn,” Barbara says. “But he was like commenting on how, yeah, he could smell him. ‘Hey, you can smell it. Can you smell him?’”

Beyoncé, who adds that the footage was difficult to watch, contemplates whether race was a factor in the way the situation played out. 

“Not a single Black or African-American person commented on [the situation],” Beyoncé says. “I think that if he was white and the same situation happened…if they saw someone burning in a vehicle, they would have at least attempted to [help the person] But I just feel like to them, he was dangerous.”

Barbara adds that in her view, Malik was expendable to the police. 

“Clearly, his life was expendable in their eyes and not to us, not to our family,” Barbara says. “He took very good care of his children, not everybody does that,” Barbara continues. 

She also noted that the police should not have continued to pursue Malik in a residential area, where the crash ultimately took place. 

Beyoncé was eager to clarify that they do not mean to defend Malik’s decision to run from the police, but that the outcome should never have happened.  

I think a lot of people think that with how we feel about everything that happened, we’re saying that he should have been running from the police. I don’t think that he should have been running from the police. I wish he would have pulled over, obviously,” Beyoncé says. “But given the fact that his car was on fire and multiple police were out of their cars with their guns drawn…I can’t even imagine what would have happened if he had pulled over. I feel like it kind of maybe even ended up the same way.”

Almost a year after the incident, Beyoncé still has a lot of frustrations and unanswered questions.

“For me, it’s like why if they saw him outside of the car wash place or they had been following him for however long, why didn’t they just get him then,” Beyoncé says. “Also when they got out with their guns drawn [after the car had crashed and was on fire], I just I wish they would have accepted the help from the neighbors with the fire extinguisher…I just feel like a lot of people there said had the cops not been there, they would have stepped in.”

For Barbara, the grieving process couldn’t begin for a while after Malik’s passing because she was the one who had to identify Malik’s body, plan the funeral and be strong for her children who had just lost their father. 

“You can’t really fall apart until you have to take care of the things that actually need to be taken care of,” Barbara says. “And I wasn’t a legal wife so that prevents me from being able to do a lot of things.”

Barbara doesn’t know that Malik can get justice in this particular circumstance. However, she hopes Malik’s story prevents situations like this from continuing in the future.  

“But to me, it was more of an abuse of of the power that you have. You have a car, you have lights, you have a gun and therefore you did something that you weren’t supposed to do,” Barbara says. “They cost someone their life. He may not have mattered to you, but he did matter to people and you looked at him as basically expendable.”

When it comes to justice, what Beyoncé wants people to remember about her stepfather is regarding accountability and humanity of each individual. 

“If people are more held accountable and realize that, yes, at the time it was a chase and he was a criminal. But as soon as that car crashed, he was a human being,” Beyoncé says. 

Despite his encounters with the law and the fact that he was no longer in a relationship with her mother, Beyoncé always felt protected and nurtured by Malik. 

“He made sure that he stayed in our life and he still always checked in on my mom. He was just really good to us,” she says. “Yes, he made mistakes in his life, but his main goal was to make sure that we didn’t make those mistakes.” 

Barbara and Beyoncé hope other people convicted of minor crimes can get the help that they need. While they don’t know that Malik himself can get justice, they believe Malik’s story might change the outcome for future situations like this.

Editor’s Note: At the time of publication, a tort claim has been filed. This is a civil claim where a claimant has suffered damages by the person who has committed an act. Due to this being in effect, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has stated to WFHB that they will not comment on the case until the tort claim is resolved.