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.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Providence, targets a collection of defendants and accuses Providence police of “excessive force and physical brutality” in their interactions with Jhamal Gonsalves.
The complaint says Gonsalves was riding a moped on Elmwood Avenue in “a safe manner” and “using due care” when Providence police followed him on Oct. 18.
The pursuit of two police cruisers forced Gonsalves to turn onto Bissell Street, says the complaint. The turn, it says, caused him to lose control of his moped, which crossed a sidewalk and hit a wall.
Gonsalves was ejected. At about the same time, says the complaint, Providence police Officer Kyle Endres turned his cruiser “in a negligent and reckless manner” onto the sidewalk, hitting a stop sign and striking Gonsalves.