Not only was Tamon Robinson, 27, killed trying to outrun cops, but now the NYPD has sent a bill to his mother ordering her to pay for the damage that killed her son.
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The 27-year-old coffee barista died in April after being struck by an NYPD squad car that began chasing him as he swiped paver stones in the predawn light at his Brooklyn housing project.
As reported by the NY Daily News:
The city has ordered her to pay the $710 cost of repairing the police car that killed her boy.
“We’re still grieving, and this is like a slap in the face,” Robinson’s mom, Laverne Dobbinson, 45, told The News.
“They want my son to pay for damage to the vehicle that killed him. It’s crazy.”
The blood-money letter dated Sept. 27 and mailed to her son seeks $710 for “property damage to a vehicle owned by the New York Police Department.”
It also threatens to slap the family with a lawsuit if the claim isn’t paid.
“Isn’t there respect for the dead?” asked John Torrence, 50, the victim’s uncle.
Police said Robinson was fleeing after being caught red-handed stealing the decorative stones from the grounds of the Bayview Houses in Canarsie on April 12.
He ran toward his building on E. 102nd St., but he was struck by the vehicle driven by Officer Volkan Uretener.
Robinson slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness, dying six days later of blunt impact head injuries.
The city medical examiner ruled his death an accident.
Photos taken of the squad car show a large indentation on the front, left-hand side of the vehicle.
Dobbinson’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, has filed a notice of intent to sue the city, and he’s warned the NYPD not to do any repairs.
As Robinson was left brain dead in Brookdale Medical Center, cops kept him shackled to his bed under police guard.
Dobbinson said she had to get permission from the NYPD to visit her son’s bedside — and was permitted to stay for only 20 minutes.
In a made-for-movie twist, on the day of Robinson’s funeral, cops broke down the door of the family’s apartment — and later acknowledged they had executed a search warrant at the wrong location.
At the time of his death, Robinson worked at a Connecticut muffin shop in Fort Greene.
This is such a disgrace on the NYPD; how can you do something like this to a grieving mother? Our thoughts and prayers are with the Robinson family during this tragic time.
SOURCE: NYDN
