Posted on 02/24/2003 5:27:59 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The parents of two French sisters crushed by a police sports utility vehicle as they sunned in Miami Beach arrived in Miami from Paris late Sunday and rushed to the hospital to see their surviving daughter.
City officials greeted Claude and Marina Tunc at Miami International Airport and drove them to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Investigators, meanwhile, tried to piece together how the Miami Beach police SUV ran over the two sisters: Stephanie Tunc, 27, who was killed, and Sandrine Tunc, 26, who was in critical condition at Jackson.
Beachgoers who witnessed the incident said the women were visible before the SUV trampled them.
''I heard them scream . . . It was unreal. I thought the officer saw them and was going to stop. The girls didn't hear him coming,'' said one of the witnesses, a woman in her 50s from Cork, Ireland, who did not want her name published.
Both sisters, French citizens, lived in London.
The accident was at least the third incident in the past 10 years that a Miami Beach city vehicle ran over and seriously injured sunbathers.
In April 1999, another city vehicle ran over a pregnant woman on the beach at nearly the identical spot.
The woman, Lupe Eyde-Tucker, survived and gave birth, despite suffering a crushed pelvis, broken ribs and head injuries after being hit by a city beach patrol officer driving a Ford Bronco.
A Peruvian tourist was run over in November 1993 by a Beach Patrol vehicle while sunbathing near 74th Street.
At the heart of the police inquiry now under way is how Officer George Varon, 36, didn't see the sisters, who were lying on the sand near a lifeguard station off Ocean Drive in the vicinity of 14th Street.
It's unclear if the sun impaired Varon's vision or if the victims were somehow hidden from view. Miami Beach police spokesman Det. Bobby Hernandez said he could not discuss details of the investigation.
Varon is on administrative leave until the investigation is finished. There have been no internal affairs complaints made against the seven-year veteran, according to police records.
Witnesses and colleagues said Varon was distraught.
''It was a pure accident,'' one said. ``I feel really sorry for the policeman.''
Hernandez said that departmental guidelines allow police and rescue vehicles onto the area occupied by bathers during emergencies only.
Miami Beach City Manager Jorge Gonzalez said Varon was responding to an alert for two men who robbed a man rollerblading at 18th Street and Washington Avenue around 12:30 p.m. Gonzalez said he did not know what was stolen.
Gonzalez said the perpetrators did not use weapons. He said police received two calls -- the first stating the men boarded a bus, the second stating they were headed toward the beach.
Police officials and lifeguards have an ''interlocking'' communications system using Motorola walkie-talkies.
When a lifeguard at 14th Street told police of subjects matching the robbers' description, police zeroed in on the scene. Varon was dispatched because he was the only officer driving a four-wheel drive vehicle, city officials said. Other police vehicles followed, but remained on the hard-sand area. Gonzalez said Varon was not in hot pursuit of the suspects.
A day after the accident, those who witnessed and returned to the beach Sunday were still shaken up.
The Irish woman and her husband were interviewed Sunday near the spot of the accident on South Beach, where they were the day before, they said.
The couple said the white SUV was moving slowly -- ''just a crawl'' -- when it sliced through the sands of South Beach, leaving the hard sand area and moving in a direct line toward the 14th Street life guard's tower.
The couple and a third witness said Sunday that the police vehicle was southbound when it hit the women.
All three said the sisters were clad only in swimsuits and were not covered by a towel. They were lying on their backs with their heads to the north and feet pointing south.
The third witness, Len Zaiser, questioned why the officer tried to negotiate the beach's sandy contours amid a gaggle of sunbathers.
''That was really sick,'' Zaiser said. ``When I saw it, I thought he was stuck in the sand and trying to get something from under the tires.''
Zaiser said that only when he got closer did he see the young women pinned beneath the vehicle. They made no sound, he said.
The women had been in Miami Beach a few days before checking into the Clay Hotel on Española Way late Friday.
On Sunday, city and police officials said they would help with funeral arrangements for the older sister.
Herald staff writer Elaine de Valle contributed to this report.
This type of phrasing is "journalism?"
I bet you believe in Santa Claus too.
''It was a pure accident,'' one said. "I feel really sorry for the policeman.''
Gross negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Manslaughter.
But he will not get a fair trial, because on the one hand he's a cop with "diplomatic immunity" before the judge, while on the other hand, if he can be hung in order to give satisfaction to foreign relations ... well, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There, but for the Grace of God, go I.
This is exactly the type of comment that I hoped not to see on this thread.
Cops do seem to get cut a lot more slack on stuff like this, and its pretty apparent that there is a pervasive attitude of recklessness toward civilians in many departments across the country.
Sure Sure, FEEB agent shoots guy in face with M-16 - no consequences. Swat goon murders 12 year old - shoots him in the back with a shotgun while the 12 year old is lying on the floor - no consequences. Cop kills guy in costume at Halloween party by shooting him through the window - no consequences. Just a few examples of a great many unpunished crimes. Show me some examples where cops have been criminally prosecuted for killing somone when they were on duty in the last couple of years. You can't because there aren't any.
Unlike criminals, police don't shoot people for a goof. Shooting a suspect during a crime is different from a guy shooting a 7-11 cashier during a robbery.
It's alive!
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