Elderly Black woman died in a fire after NYPD left her in a corridor
The family of a 91-year-old woman who died in a New York fire is preparing to file a lawsuit against the NYPD.
The family claims the NYPD left her to die in a corridor of her apartment building.
The NYPD officers were captured on surveillance footage carrying Ethel Davis out of her apartment in nothing but her nightgown. But when NYPD Sgt. Timothy Brovakos had to be helped to safety by his fellow officers after being overwhelmed by the smoke, the officers simply abandoned Davis in the hallway.
But Davis’ daughter, Marcia, reportedly said that there was no need to evacuate her mother in the first place. Marcia reportedly pleaded with the officers not to evacuate them and to instead allow them to stay in their fireproof apartment.
“She had experienced fires in the building in the past and knew that she and her mother would be safer in their residence than in the smoke-filled hallways,” said Peter Thomas, an attorney for the grieving family.
The hallway had become filled with smoke when the officers mistakenly left the door open to allow smoke from the fire one floor below to enter.
Marcia was forced to evacuate with her mother, so when the officers left Ethel Davis in the hallway, she stayed with her elderly mother waiting for more help to arrive. Eventually, Maria had to leave when the smoke became too much for her.
Just seconds later, firefighters arrived, but they didn’t see Ethel in the smoke.
Ethel died in the hospital the next day due to smoke inhalation.
The lawsuit
On Monday, the family of Ethel Davis filed a legal notice of claim, a preliminary step before a lawsuit is filed.
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“The footage tells the story of police officers evacuating residents that don’t need to evacuated,” Thomas told The Daily Mail. “It’s a fire proof building, if they had just left the residents in their apartment everything would be fine. Instead, they dragged her out of her bed and left her in the hallway for about five minutes.”
The NYPD said in January that it was conducting an investigation into the matter.
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