The family of a dead man, killed by a police cruiser, have responded with fury to a bill sent to them for $710 to cover the damage his body did to the car.
Tamon Robinson was fatally hit in April during a police chase in Brooklyn.
He had been caught digging up paving stones outside his Bayview Houses home in Canarsie and was fleeing on foot when the car smashed into him, causing blunt impact head injuries.
The 23-year-old slipped into a coma upon the moment of impact from which he never awoke and he died six days later.
A large dent in the side of the patrol car that hit him remains a grisly reminder of Robinson's death and prompted a brutal blood-money demand to be penned to his grieving family, dated September 27.
In it they were instructed to cough up the $710, over 'property damage to a vehicle owned by the New York Police Department'.
Failure to do so within 10 days, it continued, would result in a lawsuit.
'We’re still grieving, and this is like a slap in the face,' Robinson’s mother, Laverne Dobbinson, 45, told the New York Daily News.
'They want my son to pay for damage to the vehicle that killed him. It’s crazy.'
Incensed by the force's lack of humanity, Dobbinson sought legal advice of her own and intends to sue the city.
Sanford Rubenstein, her lawyer, called the bill a 'disgrace' in his filing, warning the NYPD not to do any repairs to the damaged car.
Dobbinson has further complaints about the way in which her son was treated by officers in the hours after he was struck by them.
Lying brain-dead in bed, Robinson was shackled to his bed under police guard, his mother only allowed to visit him for 20 minutes.
Then, on the day of his funeral, cops smashed their way into the family's apartment, later claiming to have got the address wrong on a search warrant.
The city medical examiner ruled Robinson's death an accident but the incident remains under investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney, as well as the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau, over witness allegations that Robinson was deliberately run over.
New York City officials have since apologized for sending the collection letter.
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TXT 24
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