The mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, tried to help chase down a car thief before the stolen vehicle crashed, killing two people, according to court papers.

Mark Freda, who was elected in 2020 and is also a longtime member of the local emergency services squad, activated the blue emergency light on his vehicle on Nov. 7, 2021, as authorities were pursuing a Jeep that had been stolen by a pair of teens, according to a report in NJ.com and a legal filing.

The exact details of the incident are unclear, but at some point, the thief behind the wheel, 15-year-old Damajia Jenay Horner, crossed into oncoming traffic and smashed into a car driven by South Brunswick mother of two Jodi Marcou on Princeton-Kingston Road.

Horner and Marcou, 61, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Marcou’s husband David had filed a lawsuit over his wife’s death in Middlesex County Court and added Freda as a defendant in July.

The family is also suing Horner’s family, the municipality of Princeton, the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad, and others.

Freda activated “the blue warning light on his vehicle and knew or reasonably should have known that by doing so, it would initiate, engage, cause and/or result in a dangerous result . . . a palpably unreasonable risk of serious or life-threatening injuries to the public and motorists,” David Marcou contended in court papers.

The mayor had “no formal authority in activating his blue lights and in conducting any form of pursuit or at speed chase of the vehicle Horner was operating,” the widower alleged.

Horner and another teen were hired by Elhajjmalik Diallo to steal the Jeep, according to NJ.com. Diallo was arrested in May 2022 for the incident and is among those being sued by Marcou.

Neither Freda nor his attorney responded to messages seeking comment, but called Jodi Marcou’s death “an unavoidable accident” and “an act of God” in court papers they filed responding to Marcou’s allegations.