A representative for the Georgia State Patrol said troopers were called to the intersection of Newcastle Street and Washington place around 4:30 Wednesday afternoon in response to the fatal collision.
According to officials, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Atlanta police Officer Ryan Chandler, 24, ran a stop sign and was not using emergency lights at the time of the crash. The man on the scooter was taken Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died. His name has not been released.
According to police, Chandler was uninjured, but for some reason, he was taken to the hospital as well.
Highlighting the sheer above the law attitude of police in this matter is the fact that no charges have been filed in spite of all the facts already known. Officials claim that they have launched an investigation, however.
A witness showed WSB-TV a video of the aftermath which she said was so horrifying that she could not sleep after seeing it.
"I came running down the street. All I saw was this man laying in the middle of the ground," Melanie Gonzalez said. "It's just crazy."
Gonzalez said she witnessed the officer driving on the wrong side of the road before he ran the stop sign and plowed into the scooter.
"He was on the wrong side of the street and ran right into him. He hit that man so hard, you could see from the impact of the windshield," Gonzalez said.
Chandler is currently on paid administrative leave, otherwise known as paid vacation, while police investigate the details of the crash. Due to the serious nature of the crash, the Atlanta police department has asked the Georgia State Patrol to take over.
As for Chandler, Gonzalez says he should be fired immediately.
"I think he should be fired. I think he should be fired, and I think the city should pay out to his family. It's not going to bring him back, but at least his family can have some kind of closure," Gonzalez said.
As TFTP has reported, traffic crashes by police officers are not isolated and, in fact, are the leading cause of death among cops. Sadly, they are almost never held accountable for the most egregious of cases.
As we reported earlier this year, the police officer who crashed his patrol car into an elderly couple's car while driving nearly 30 mph over the speed limit faced no charges and will remain on the job, despite a history of dangerous driving accidents.
The surveillance footage is gruesome, and it shows James Cryer, 69, and his wife Rena, 78, exiting a parking lot and pulling out onto the road in their 2001 Chevy Blazer when a 2015 Dodge Charger races down the street and crashes into the left rear of their car. Mr. Cryer was ejected from the car and left lying in the middle of the street.
The speeding car, which clearly had "POLICE" emblazoned on its side, was an Algood City patrol car driven by Officer Christopher Ferguson, 32. An investigation from the Tennessee Highway Patrol placed the blame on both drivers-claiming that while Ferguson was exceeding the speed limit, Cryer also "failed to yield" to oncoming traffic.
Ferguson was let off with a slap on the wrist while his victims were ticketed. Hopefully, this case in Atlanta turns out different.
Reader Comments
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