An 8-year-old boy who climbed into a parked school bus, released the emergency brake and sent 26,000 pounds of steel rolling through Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Monday was charged yesterday with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Amber Sadiq, 8, who was crushed between the bus's right undercarriage and a street pole.
The boy, Tafari James, had been suspended from second grade on Friday for climbing onto another unattended bus, officials said yesterday in Family Court in Downtown Brooklyn.
Investigators said it was unclear whether he released the brake on Monday intentionally. Witnesses saw him board the bus alone, on Nostrand Avenue near Crown Street, around 3:15 p.m. He rode the bus as it gathered speed down a slight incline and jump off as it thudded to a halt after traveling 100 feet, the police said.
Charge of Negligent Homicide for Boy, 8, in School Bus Death
An 8-year-old boy who climbed into a parked school bus, released the emergency brake and sent 26,000 pounds of steel rolling through Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Monday was charged yesterday with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Amber Sadiq, 8, who was crushed between the bus’s right undercarriage and a street pole.
The boy, Tafari James, had been suspended from second grade on Friday for climbing onto another unattended bus, officials said yesterday in Family Court in Downtown Brooklyn.
Investigators said it was unclear whether he released the brake on Monday intentionally. Witnesses saw him board the bus alone, on Nostrand Avenue near Crown Street, around 3:15 p.m. He rode the bus as it gathered speed down a slight incline and jump off as it thudded to a halt after traveling 100 feet, the police said.
At a hearing yesterday, Judge Maureen A. McLeod ordered Tafari detained and tentatively scheduled another hearing for Friday. Officials of the city’s Law Department, which handles juvenile cases, said in interviews that they have not decided whether to pursue the charges that had already been filed by the police, and must first investigate the boy’s history and the case’s circumstances.
“The conduct he engaged in constitutes the basis of a criminal act,” said Gail Donoghue, special counsel in the Law Department, adding that “we have to figure out what really happened.”
Accompanied by his father, great-aunt and great-grandmother, Tafari entered the court around 4 p.m. He was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt big enough for an adult. He sat in a chair, with his feet dangling, and he was crying. On request, he gave his name and age.
A police detective, Brian M. Gregory, testified that the charges were based on Tafari’s statements at a precinct station house.
“He saw a parked bus,” Detective Gregory said. “He entered a parked bus. He wanted to drive the bus. The bus started to move. He got scared. He saw a crossing guard jumping up and down. The bus stopped after hitting a pole.”
Detective Gregory added, “He was trying to move the wheels with his hands and the pedals with his feet.”
Samuel Karliner, a lawyer for Tafari, asked whether his feet could reach the pedals.
The detective said, “I don’t believe he can reach the pedals on the floor, no.”
At the hearing, Kim Lawton, a court liaison officer for the Probation Department, said Tafari had been suspended from school for climbing onto another parked bus on Friday, providing no other details.
During this school year, Ms. Lawton said, Tafari has been absent 40 times and late 14 times. His school has called the Administration for Children’s Services to report inadequate guardianship. He is not allowed on school trips and has been found wandering around Crown Heights unsupervised. Ms. Lawton did not say where Tafari attends school, and Tafari ‘s lawyer said he did not know. The Department of Education and the Administration for Children’s Services declined to discuss his history.
Outside the courtroom, Mr. Karliner said that Tafari was not responsible for Amber’s death. “It was clearly a tragic accident,” he said. “The family of our client is distraught for themselves and the child and for the family of the other child.”
Mr. Karliner said Tafari “was playing in a bus and didn’t know what would happen. As soon as the bus moved, he became scared and terrified and jumped out. I don’t see any way that an 8-year-old can perceive that degree of risk.”
Tafari, who lives with his father, was under the supervision of his grandmother, Rosslyn James, on Monday when he boarded the bus. In an interview, Ms. James said Tafari left while she was napping.
Mr. Karliner said Tafari’s family took him to the precinct station house after Amber, who was a second grader at Public School 161 on Crown Street, was killed.
Tafari was taken into the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice, said Scott Trent, a department spokesman. All juveniles who are arrested undergo medical screening and admissions procedures in the Bronx. Children age 7 to 9 are separated in an environment similar to a group home, without the security features typical of a jail.
Yesterday morning, probation officers met with Tafari, his father and Amber’s parents, said Jack Ryan, a spokesman for the Department of Probation. After the police arrest a child, officers have the authority to adjust the charges, ordering the child to write an apology, perform community service or abide by a curfew, among other measures, but only if the victim agrees.
When no agreement was reached, the case was handed over to the Law Department, which could still decide not to pursue the charges filed by the police.
City medical examiners ruled Amber’s death an accident caused by blunt impact injuries. The girl’s funeral was scheduled for today in Woodhaven, Queens.
Last May, when a 9-year-old girl stabbed her 11-year-old playmate to death in an apartment in East New York, Brooklyn, the police said that no one could remember charging one so young in a killing.
Across the country in 2002, the last year for which statistics are available from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, juveniles were involved as offenders in roughly 1,300 murders, 8 percent of the total. In those cases, 72 percent of the killers were 16 or 17 years old; only 12 percent were under age 15.
Keith Kalb, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education, said department policy does not require a lock on the emergency doors of school buses. Industry experts said buses are intended to be driven to and from their yards, not parked on city streets.
To avoid stress on transmission systems, many buses must be left in neutral, said Noah H. Kushlefsky, a transportation lawyer with Kreindler & Kreindler in Manhattan.
Depending on the model, many buses are equipped with doors that do not lock, like the rear door of the bus that killed Amber, said Bill Paul, the editor of School Transportation News, an industry magazine based in California.
At the hearing yesterday, Judge McLeod ordered a mental health examination for Tafari, saying that he “has a troubled life right now.”
When it was over, Tafari asked a court officer how old the judge was and what her hammer was used for. He said he wanted to go home.
CH RESIDENT
This is a tragedy. There is no way that this boy could have understood what was happening. He didn’t take a gun to play with or throw rocks. He was fooling around and he got scared. What he needs now is a break in this difficult life he was given. He needs a mentor that will teach him what’s right and how to behave. I personally hope some nice people will take him in and give him a chance otherwise he is doomed.
not from around here.....
This is very sad. This child was already in trouble and suspended from school for entering a bus so he knows it’s wrong !
Why was he left in the care of his elderly
great-grandmother ? I think the parents are to blame for this, they don’t take care of their child obviously or why would he have missed so much school. Does anyone care, is the system so overloaded with neglegted children? I just don’t get it !!!
e. b.
morally its the fault of the father and grandmother if he was absent that many times from school.
Useless tragedy, how sad and tragic.
These schools have to do something about these children from such homes, they become a hazard to families who are trying to be good citizens and decent people.
MIKE
The father is fully resonsible for his childs actions.
He should be punished to the full extent of the law. If you are going to have kids.
BE RESPONSIBLE!
Aj
Why wasnt the bus locked? kids are curious and love school buses, if a bus is open to a child its a calamity ready to occur.
Utopia Man
Mike is right.
Just as you need a training/license to drive, you should need a training/license to have kids. Kids w/o licensed parent should be put in orphanages with supervision and parents be obligated to pay the dues (not waste their money on SUVs).
Jewish observer
This opens the door for all kinds of wild comments to be hurled against black people.
mother
AJ,
The school bus WAS locked. The kid got in through the Emergency SIDE DOOR which can never be locked.
Sad for the family. This stupid boy has to live with this for the rest of his life, perhaps this will be his life lesson forever.
me
att:mike
nobody knows who his father is
hashfanatic
The problem is, what point is there to a locked emergency door?
The kid will probably wind up being placed in detention. I guess it’s arguable he may come out all the more worse for the experience, and let out on the streets again.
The question is, what can be done with such a kid? There seemingly are no strong parental figures for him to be released to, even if it were right to do so. The great-grandmother appears to be totally overwhelmed.
He appears to be repentant from the news reports, but who knows?
to Utopia
Utopia,
There are plenty "frume" people that need licenses to have children. let’s not get into the Parent License discussion. It’s very sad.
(and to "me": the kid lived wih his father).
lhs girl
Yes it is VERY sad … too sad 4 words! and heart breaking 4 the parents – but about the child – he has to live with the guilt trip of "killing" some1 his whole life …. i think that is the biggest punishment you could ever give! but i do think the parents should be blamed!!!
what the hammer was used for
End of article says that the boy asked what judge’s hammer was used for.
I would answer: to hit your head so strong that you remember for the rest of your life.
Yos
they better get this kid lockd up while he is still young
Boerd on utica
Nice pics
M-23
Was Hatzalah There
To Lhs girl
You mentioned that it’s punishment enough for the boy to live with his whole life that he killed someone. Wait until this kid is older. He’ll be just like the rest of them. Big woop they do this stuff all the time. How’s that a punishment
izzy c
the kid should grt a punishmrnt, to show a example to other kids. no monkeying around!
moshe
we need moshiach now!!!
TO PARENTS OF 8 YEAROLD KIDS
THEY CANT PUT HIM IN JAIL BC HE IS 8 AND THEY CANT CHARGE HIM GUILTY BC HE DID NOTHING GUILTY HE IS JUST A KID – TO ALL THOSE PARENTS WITH 8 YEAR OLD CHIDREN: YOU GUYS KNOW THAT YOUR KIDS ARE IN FOR EXCITEMENT AND THEY WOULD PROBABLY GO ON A BUS TO – BUT THEY DONT UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT THEYRA DOING CAN KILL SOMEONE THEY DONT UNDERSTAND THE MEANIG OF DEATH- BESIDES IF THEY PUT HIM IN JUVENILE JAIL THE KID WILL BECOME SERIOUSLY MESSED UP – AND HE IS FOR SURE GOING PSYCHO NOW HE NEEDSA BREAK FROM EVERYONE NOW AND THEN PEOPLE CAN TALK TO HIM – AFTER ALL HE IS JUST 8 – A KID
well informed
M-23 "Was Hatzalah There?" no hatzoloh was not there they were not called M23 you should know the answer your self unless you had you radio to your group channel
out of crown hts. but love this site
I think people write so much cause they just love to see their name in print and they feel they can finally make a difference and be heard by hundreds of ppl.
It’s a freak accident, B"h that it was not a yiddish kid who pulled the brake! Kids like mischief, it’s up to the adults to make a mentsch out of them
Anonymous
Bloomberg Says He Has Qualms About Charging an 8-Year-Old
New York Times — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that he had reservations about pursuing charges against an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy who the police say released the emergency brake on a parked school bus, which then fatally crushed a young girl.
“This is an 8-year-old child — I don’t know what facing charges means,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at a news conference on Staten Island. “This was not a child who has a history of taking a gun and going out in the street. This is a child who tragically did something that if it wasn’t so tragic you’d describe as a prank.”
The boy was charged by the police on Tuesday with criminally negligent homicide in the death of the girl, Amber Sadiq, 8, of Crown Heights. But the city’s Law Department, which handles juvenile cases, is deciding how to proceed.
Amber was killed on Monday afternoon when the empty bus, parked near a school in Crown Heights, rolled down Nostrand Avenue as she was crossing the street.
Elizabeth Brady, deputy chief of the Family Court division of the Law Department, said a mental health evaluation of the boy was continuing, as well as an investigation into the facts of the case. Ms. Brady said that by tomorrow, when a hearing is set in Brooklyn Family Court, the department could decide what charges, if any, to file.
But the comments of Mr. Bloomberg, who recently overruled the department in its appeal of a favorable workers’ compensation decision for a former deputy mayor, Rudy Washington, suggested that he did not want to see the boy face the charges.
“We’re going to talk to the Family Court judge and to A.C.S. and see what we can do,” he said, referring to the Administration for Children’s Services, the child welfare agency.
“Our prayers have to be with the poor young girl who died” and her family, he continued. “But I don’t know what a penalty against an 8-year-old really would mean.”
someone else
pretty gruesome
time out
Maybe you can send him to "Time out"