A Queens dad with five kids who left home to get a turkey and cheese hero after a graveyard shift was struck and seriously injured in a crosswalk when a police SUV hurtling down the street ploughed into him, alarming video obtained by the Daily News shows.
Lamar Quello Hollins, 31, filed a notice of intent to sue the city earlier this month over the Aug. 25 incident on Jamaica Ave. at 169th Street in Jamaica which left him prone and motionless on the street and his sweatshirt hanging off the sideview mirror of the police vehicle.
In the official crash report reviewed by The News, the officer, Cody Duffy, of the 103rd Precinct, writes he slowed down entering the intersection, but Hollins, who was crossing against the light, contradicts that claim. Video of the incident does not show any obvious slowing in the seconds before the crash.
“I heard a sound like someone revving, I looked right and boom,” Hollins told The News. “By the time I could recognize what it was, it was in my face. I couldn’t back up, I tried to run and as soon as I did, it curved and still hit me.”
The incident renews questions about high-speed police responses in a crowded city. Hollins’ lawyer Nicholas Liakis said he has handled several similar lawsuits this year involving pedestrians struck by speeding police vehicles, including that of Amanda Edmond, a pedestrian injured in July when an police SUV knocked her over in Brooklyn. She has also sued the city.
“In Hollins’ case, the officer was clearly speeding. If the cop had to cross that intersection, he had to make sure it’s safe before he does it,” Liakis said.
In January, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch revised department policy to limit police pursuits to only the most serious crimes.
A circuitous route to a crash
Now 31, Hollins’ journey to that intersection followed a circuitous route. Born in Louisiana, he spent 20 years in Texas, working for a time just across the border in Oklahoma’s Winstar World Casino as a loss prevention officer.
He moved to Atlanta where his wife worked at the QVC shopping network. But the family fell on hard times and they were evicted. His wife was from Flatbush, so they moved to the Big Apple in the hope of more opportunities and to be closer to her family.
Their five children – ages 10,9,7,6 and 4 – remained in Georgia with family while Hollins and his wife dealt with employment and housing before bringing them here.
Hollins obtained a job unloading trucks overnight for $18 an hour at a Dollar Tree discount store in Jamaica and says he was close to getting a housing voucher so they could leave the Queens shelter where they live and find their own apartment, he said.
“It was a chance to find new opportunities,’ he said. “It’s harder down south. When you are struggling they don’t assist you.”
On Aug. 25, Hollins worked through the night and slept until 3 p.m.. He then left home to buy lunch for him and his wife from a bodega three blocks away. After ordering a honey turkey hero, hot wings and french fries, he crossed the street to a Dollar General and bought a bag of Fritos, a quart of milk, snack cakes, two sodas and a juice.
“I figured by the time I got back, it should be ready,” he said. “I got my snacks and was returning.”
The accident report indicates Duffy, a seven-year NYPD veteran, in a police SUV with his partner was driving west on Jamaica Ave., responding to a 10-85, meaning “need additional unit,” on a report of “officers engaged in a foot pursuit regarding a knife involved job.”
Security video from a store shows Hollins with a backpack. He entered the crosswalk at 169th St. going south to north and walked against the light to the median where he paused looking to the right for oncoming traffic.
He waited 12 seconds as three cars go through the intersection as a woman also waits behind him, the video shows. A fourth car slows and pauses possibly to turn, a second security video shows.
Hollins then reacts with surprise as the police SUV barrels down the road.
Hollins takes one step backward then semi-crouches to sprint forward out of the way of the SUV. But, according to a second security video, as the SUV veers around the turning car it ploughs into him.
The NYPD crash report claims says that while approaching the intersection, Duffy had a steady green light and “was slowing down in the safety median as he approached in order to avoid traffic.”
The notice of claim states that Duffy was “driving and operating said vehicle at a rate of speed that was excessive under the circumstances.”
His body is lifted on to the hood and thrown in the air, the video shows. He then slides across the asphalt about 20 feet from the place of impact. “I was thrown from one crosswalk to the other crosswalk,” Hollins said.
The SUV screeches to a halt and the officers emerge and rush to Hollins’ side as he lays on his back motionless in the street, the second video shows.
“This s— is crazy,” screams a woman passerby, according to a third video taken by a civilian. “What the f— is wrong with cops nowadays!…The cops took the man down! Get the f—— ambulance!”
The video shows Duffy’s SUV with Hollins sweatshirt still hanging off the driver’s sideview mirror. Locals thinking Hollins was dead placed flowers at the crash intersection the following day.
Bradley Weekes, an NYPD spokesman, said a review of body cam video shows Duffy had his lights and sirens on. Hollins claims he did not hear any sirens.
In addition, Weekes said immediately after impact, Duffy stopped, called for an ambulance and rendered aid to Hollins.
Weekes declined to comment further citing a pending review of the incident by the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau.
Liakis, Hollins’ lawyer, said even if Duffy was right to respond urgently to the 10-85 call, he still had a legal obligation to exercise due care.
“He clearly violated vehicle and traffic law. You can’t just blow through the median where there are multiple pedestrians and cars without slowing down and checking the intersection,” Liakis said. “They can’t put the public at risk like that.”
For Hollins, the crash has thrown his family’s plans into chaos, he says. After a month on injury leave, Dollar Tree laid him off because he was physically unable to work.
The couple has no income and has had to borrow from family. The housing voucher application has been put on hold since he has no employment.
He says even though he’s lucky to be alive, he’s still suffering from back and knee pain. His injuries included a concussion, a slight fracture to his right knee, and spinal contusions.
“I had just worked long enough to be able to get approved for a voucher,” Hollins said. “It completely crushed everything we planned. I was finally on my way to having our own place and suddenly, it was gone. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
