The parents of a woman who was knocked down and killed by a police vehicle while crossing the Priority Bus Route, in Curepe on Boxing Night, are calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the incident.
Rosemary Mark and Marvin Edward said yesterday they had received conflicting information from eyewitnesses and a police officer who was involved in the crash that claimed the life of their 20-year-old daughter Gabrielle Regina Edward.
In tears, Mark who works with the T&T Police Service (TTPS) finance branch and Edward demanded answers during an interview at Guardian Media yesterday.
“We want clarity and the truth on the issue. If there was negligence on the part of the officers involved I want justice. We want the Commissioner of Police to probe our daughter’s death because something is not adding up,” Mark said.
The couple also plans to lodge a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority.
Mark said Gabrielle left her Picton Street, Sangre Grande, home on Boxing Day to pick up duties as a cashier at the Unipet Station at Curepe Junction.
She was scheduled to work the 10 pm to 6 am shift.
Hours later, Mark said someone called her cellphone telling her that Gabrielle was struck by a police vehicle while crossing the PBR in Curepe and things looked grim.
“When I arrived on the scene my daughter had already passed away,” Mark said.
After speaking to several eyewitnesses, Mark said she was given one story.
However, after speaking with one of the occupants of the police vehicle involved in the accident she was told Gabrielle had crossed on a green light.
The police claimed that around 1 am, a marked police vehicle driven by PC Richardson in company with PC Gooding was heading east on the PBR, when a pedestrian ran across the road from south to north and collided with the front of the vehicle. She was thrown to the roadside upon impact.
Edward queried why his daughter was not taken to the hospital immediately for medical treatment.
“They just left her there on the ground even though she was alive. Even if my daughter was wrong or right they could have taken her to a hospital. If this was done I believe my daughter would have been alive today. I still had faith that she would have been alive since God is a miracle worker. I didn’t believe I was going to meet her dead body on the road,” Mark said.
Edward said the attitude of the police left much to be desired as they showed no compassion to the grieving family.
“At one point they ran us from the scene when Rosemary began to cry after seeing Gabrielle’s lifeless body,” Edward said.
Mark said Gabrielle, a former Bishop’s Anstey East Secondary School student who attained five distinctions at the O’ Level examinations, never liked the idea of being unemployed.
“We didn’t like the job she was doing but she always tried to keep herself occupied by doing something constructive. She was an ambitious person,” she said.