Mom says reckless cop ran over her son
It was not a particularly good weekend for police as in at least two instances the conduct of individual officers has left civilians with major complaints, not to mention serious injuries. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has been investigating the incidents since morning and finds that, in the case of a traffic accident on Saturday night, the official version of events does not match accounts from those at the scene.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Witnesses told News 5 the police pickup truck was going very fast down Vernon street when it jumped this speed bump, lost control, and crashed into twenty-two year old Byron Valentino, who was riding his bicycle on the left hand side of the road.
Leslie Tillett, Witness
“The vehicle come along, jumped the bump, and the same way he jumped the bump, somebody over there said look what will happen now. As he said that, we just see he back-weh the bwai down so because with the speed weh he came with, we know something would happen.”
Witnesses say the impact was so great that Valentino was thrown off his bike and dragged along the pavement, until he landed across the other side of the street. By the time it was all over, Valentino lay wounded in the drain with a badly broken left leg plus head and body injuries.
Grizele Gloria Valentino, Mother of Injured Man
“I have to feed him through a straw. He cannot open his mouth, his jaw hurts him; he cannot eat as much either because his chest hurts him and his stomach hurts him.”
Valentino says her son, who is hearing and speech impaired, says his disability is not the cause of the accident, but it was the result of an out of control police vehicle. Authorities say police constable Pedro Teck told them that he was en route to an operation and tried to avoid hitting the cyclist, but the young man did not respond to the sound of the vehicle nor the horn, but appeared to have been swerving across the street.
Leslie Tillett
“We only hear bam, and like the man them brakes up and all we see they just pick up the young man and put him in the vehicle and gone.”
Valentino, who communicates with her son by sign language, says he also told her that the police appeared to have been under the influence.
Grizele Gloria Valentino
“He give me sign and look in his hand and he tell me that it was a clear police, he is big and he told me that he was drinking because he smelt it when they picked him up. And he told me that when they picked him up they just throw him in the vehicle that’s why he must be pain up because the way they threw him because they feel like he done dead”
Police say they have launched an inquiry into the accident and any reports they receive will be seriously investigated. On Wednesday, Valentino is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair his leg that was broken in three parts. He must also get a CAT Scan, but his mother says they do not have the five hundred and twenty-five dollars it will cost to do the examination; a medical expense she believes the police should pay.
Grizele Gloria Valentino
“I want the police to stand all the expense, mind my little boy until my little boy can walk. Because I know I can’t sue them because they have rights more than me, where as everything police do, dah right, they do now wrong, but I want them to mind my son.”
Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Police did tell News 5 that the investigation will be handled in a fair manner and if the evidence indicates that police constable Pedro Teck is responsible for the accident, he will be charged accordingly.
