City denies responsibility for police-involved moped crash of Jhamal Gonsalves
The City of Providence is denying responsibility for a police-involved moped crash that left a 24-year-old in a coma last year.
In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court, the city along with Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré and Police Chief Hugh T. Clements Jr. rejected allegations that Paré and Clements behaved “with reckless disregard and deliberate indifference in hiring, screening and training” Officers Kyle Endres and Brad McParlin.
Both officers were involved in the October incident in which Jhamal Gonsalves sustained a traumatic brain injury after being thrown from his moped. The motion also refutes claims that Paré and Clements neglected to provide the officers with “adequate training, education and discipline.” Rather than wading into whether the officers were culpable, the motion denies that the city, Paré and Clements are at fault.
Officer involved in crash that hurt moped rider suspended Follow Us
Question of the Day By - Associated Press - Friday, January 8, 2021
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Providence police officer will be suspended for two days after closely following a moped rider who crashed and went into a coma, officials said Friday.
Officer Kyle Endres, a six-year member of the force, is being suspended because he did not drive his cruiser safely and he did not wear a seat belt, Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said at a news conference. Endres will also undergo retraining.
The announcement came a day after state Attorney General Peter Neronha announced there would be no criminal charges in connection with the Oct. 18 crash that injured Jhamal Gonsalves.
Several other officers face discipline or retraining for the way they treated bystanders, for failing to turn on their body cameras, and for administering an opioid reversal drug incorrectly, Pare said. One officer administered the drug, mistakenly thinking Gonsalves was overdosing. Discipline is about changing future behavior, not about embarrassing officers or embarrassing anyone, Pare said. How can we prevent this from happening.
Neronha said Thursday that state investigators determined Endres did not directly strike Gonsalves, who is Black, or his moped as witnesses have said.
Gonsalves, 24, had been among hundreds of people riding dirt bikes, ATVs and sometimes street-illegal vehicles through the city.