Photo: Getty Images
A Houston family is outraged after learning that an officer who hit and killed a 41-year-old mother with a patrol vehicle earlier this year is back on duty, ABC13 reports.
The death of Desire Pool, 41, unfolded around 9:52 pm on September 19. Dashcam video of the crash shows Houston police officer Shelby Kennedy driving full speed into a group of three people. A fourth person was standing on an island in the middle of the street.
Everyone in the group was able to jump out of harm's way except for Pool.
In the video, Kennedy's backseat passenger, a suspect being transported to the Joint Processing Center, yelled out as the vehicle hit the victim.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Oh, my (explicit) God! You didn't see them?" he said.
"No!" Kennedy replied.
Pool was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. According to the Houston Police Department, Pool's group wasn't standing in a marked crosswalk at the time of the crash. The victim's mother, Patricia Barnes, said Pool, her children, and a friend had gotten off a bus and were crossing the street at the time of the crash.
The family said they are considering legal action.
"What was she doing that she didn't see these people in the street?" Barnes said of the officer. "Her passenger saw them, and he wasn't even driving."
It's unclear how fast Kennedy was driving at the time of the crash. The closest sign to the scene of the incident states that the speed limit is 35 mph.
The Houston Police Department is still investigating the incident. Kennedy was initially put on administrative leave amid the investigation, but is now back on the job, the department said.
A department spokesperson claimed the reinstatement was protocol, but it doesn't mean the officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
"I feel horrified that she's back on the street. How could you hit and kill a mother in front of her children and be back on the streets within two months?" Barnes asked. "Kennedy needs to take accountability for what she did. There needs to be some type of punishment. She should not be able to go back to work."
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