Post by WaTcHeR on May 24, 2006 9:56:25 GMT -5
05.22.2006 - A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation for an 8-year-old boy accused of sneaking onto an empty school bus and releasing the parking brake, causing it to roll forward and fatally crush a second-grade girl.
The boy, identified only as Tafiri J., appeared in court yesterday accompanied by his father.
Judge Maureen McLeod said Tafiri was to be put in the custody of the Administration for Children's Services for testing.
Tafiri was traumatized by what happened, said Samuel Karliner, one of his lawyers. "He never intended for this to happen.
"They are going to evaluate, first his physical state after everything he's been through, his emotional state, his mental state just so the judge has a real idea of she's dealing with a young 8-year-old boy," said Karliner. "She wants to know who he is."
Amber Sadiq, 8, was walking home from school with her 10-year-old brother when she was struck by the bus in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Crown Heights around 3:20 p.m. Monday. Sadiq died at the scene.
A makeshift memorial now stands at a nearby intersection.
The driver had parked and secured the bus before going on his lunch break.
Police say the boy, who was staying with his grandmother, snuck out of his home and onto the parked bus.
Police said they believed the boy entered the bus alone, but city Councilwoman Letitia James, who represents parts of Brooklyn, said a witness saw Tafiri and a 10-year-old boy climbing into the bus through the back emergency door, which does not lock.
The witness removed the boys from the bus, which later started rolling down the sloped street, James said.
Only Tafiri was accused of releasing the brake, she said. The witness had seen the boy get into a school bus last week and had taken him off that one, too, she said. But the boy was suspended from school as a result of the incident.
According to city lawyers, the boy has been absent from school at least 40 days this year.
The Administration for Children's Services was involved with the family, but the boy's attorneys insist the agency was just helping a single father, not a negligent father.
Karliner said Tafiri had been playing "like you see a kid do in a park on a piece of playground equipment" with a steering wheel.
A legal conference was scheduled for today, and the boy was due back in court on Friday.
The little boy's attorney says while tragic, his client wasn't committing a crime.
"He's an 8-year-old playing in a bus; supervision-wise he should not have been there, but did he do anything? Did he have any intent to hurt anybody? Was he acting with criminal negligence to injure somebody? Absolutely not.
"He was a young boy and went into an open bus, playing in a bus," said Karliner.
Defence attorneys say the bus company is actually at fault.
"The bus driver shouldn't have let this bus allowed to be boarded by people on the street," said attorney Richard A. Miller. "Apparently he took a sandwich and went a block or two away and left it unguarded with the door, we believe, open, where it was an attractive nuisance to anybody who wanted to go on -- little children -- and somehow it wasn't secure."
Grief counsellors were on hand at the school yesterday to help classmates and teachers deal with the tragedy.
The boy, identified only as Tafiri J., appeared in court yesterday accompanied by his father.
Judge Maureen McLeod said Tafiri was to be put in the custody of the Administration for Children's Services for testing.
Tafiri was traumatized by what happened, said Samuel Karliner, one of his lawyers. "He never intended for this to happen.
"They are going to evaluate, first his physical state after everything he's been through, his emotional state, his mental state just so the judge has a real idea of she's dealing with a young 8-year-old boy," said Karliner. "She wants to know who he is."
Amber Sadiq, 8, was walking home from school with her 10-year-old brother when she was struck by the bus in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Crown Heights around 3:20 p.m. Monday. Sadiq died at the scene.
A makeshift memorial now stands at a nearby intersection.
The driver had parked and secured the bus before going on his lunch break.
Police say the boy, who was staying with his grandmother, snuck out of his home and onto the parked bus.
Police said they believed the boy entered the bus alone, but city Councilwoman Letitia James, who represents parts of Brooklyn, said a witness saw Tafiri and a 10-year-old boy climbing into the bus through the back emergency door, which does not lock.
The witness removed the boys from the bus, which later started rolling down the sloped street, James said.
Only Tafiri was accused of releasing the brake, she said. The witness had seen the boy get into a school bus last week and had taken him off that one, too, she said. But the boy was suspended from school as a result of the incident.
According to city lawyers, the boy has been absent from school at least 40 days this year.
The Administration for Children's Services was involved with the family, but the boy's attorneys insist the agency was just helping a single father, not a negligent father.
Karliner said Tafiri had been playing "like you see a kid do in a park on a piece of playground equipment" with a steering wheel.
A legal conference was scheduled for today, and the boy was due back in court on Friday.
The little boy's attorney says while tragic, his client wasn't committing a crime.
"He's an 8-year-old playing in a bus; supervision-wise he should not have been there, but did he do anything? Did he have any intent to hurt anybody? Was he acting with criminal negligence to injure somebody? Absolutely not.
"He was a young boy and went into an open bus, playing in a bus," said Karliner.
Defence attorneys say the bus company is actually at fault.
"The bus driver shouldn't have let this bus allowed to be boarded by people on the street," said attorney Richard A. Miller. "Apparently he took a sandwich and went a block or two away and left it unguarded with the door, we believe, open, where it was an attractive nuisance to anybody who wanted to go on -- little children -- and somehow it wasn't secure."
Grief counsellors were on hand at the school yesterday to help classmates and teachers deal with the tragedy.
