on September, a 41-year-old mother and her children were standing on a northwest Houston street when a Houston police officer struck and killed her after verbally warning her.
Despite another officer shouting only a second before Desire Pool was struck, body camera and dashboard video footage from the police car that struck Pool on September 19 seemed to show the driver did not slow down or change course to avoid the gathering of people standing in the road.
At approximately 10 p.m. on September 19, just prior to the collision, police from the North Patrol Division were taking an apprehended individual to the jail processing center located close to the 5300 block of Antoine Drive. At the time, officers claimed that the woman did not give way to the car and that speeding had nothing to do with the collision.
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According to the police, Pool and her kids had just gotten off a bus when they crossed the street into the area where she was hit.
At least one person was visible standing in the road five seconds before to the warning and six seconds before Pool was hit, according to dashboard video evidence. Throughout the event, the car seemed to stay at its current pace.
Before the collision, an officer in the passenger seat said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
Did you fail to notice them? He cried out just before the officers got out of the car to help Pool.
On body camera footage, Pool’s kids could be seen begging for assistance as an officer started CPR, occasionally pleading with their mother to wake up.
Before being sent to the Ben Taub Hospital, where she was declared dead, the woman seemed to regain some consciousness.
The crash is currently being looked into by the Internal Affairs Division of the Houston Police Department. During the investigation, Officer Kennedy, the driving officer, was placed on administrative leave; however, she has since resumed her regular responsibilities within the department.
Why Kennedy failed to halt in time to avoid striking Pool is still unknown.
According to Axios, the police department had no immediate plans to make the camera footage public. However, a department official later informed the outlet that there was a misunderstanding within the department and that the tape would be made public shortly.
Unless otherwise required by law, the Houston Police Department routinely publishes video evidence of officer-involved shootings and officer-involved civilian death occurrences in accordance with a 2022 policy and to uphold transparency with the public.
Within 30 days following the occurrence, such films are uploaded to the police department’s YouTube channel.
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