[UPDATE] Witness Claims NYPD Car That Killed Japanese Student Did Not Have Lights Or Sirens On
Ryo Oyamada center, surrounded by friends.
[UPDATE AT BOTTOM] According to the NYPD, the cop car that killed 24-year-old Japanese student Ryo Oyamada in Queens last month had its "emergency lights activated" at the time of impact. But at least one witness says he saw neither flashing lights nor heard a siren activated on the patrol car before it slammed into Oyamada, and that the NYPD bears far more responsibility for the fatal crash than Oyamada's distraught family has been led to believe.
Chuck Johnson, who works at Queensbridge sports lounge PDG Variety Store, tells us he saw Oyamada leaving a neighboring deli at 40th Street and 10th Ave, right before he was hit by the patrol car. "He came out of the store and by the time I turned back around... he was on the ground dead in 35, 40 seconds," Johnson told us. And though the police report states that the patrol car in question had its "emergency lights activated" at the time of the accident, Johnson insists that wasn't the case. "They never had sirens on," Johnson said. "They didn't put sirens on until two more patrol cars put on their sirens. There were no overhead lights on, none."
Johnson thinks the car was traveling upwards of 70 miles per hour, and he tells us it's common to see cop cruisers speeding in his neighborhood. "We've been talking about these officers, they're the same officers that race around the neighborhood in their police car," Johnson told us. "The speed this guy was going, you can get to the same spot at 30 miles an hour. Why do you have to be going 70 miles an hour in a residential neighborhood?"
Orion Brown, Oyamada's roommate, says he spoke with other witnesses who echoed Johnson's account of the incident. In an email, he tells us:
The police also claim they recovered video footage from the Queens Bridge North Houses security cameras, why wont they show this footage that proves their innocence? They say that the footage proves that the police car had its lights on. However, I have talked to several people who were standing on the corner of 10th and 40th at the time of Ryo's murder by the police. Everybody says that the first police car that was involved in the actual death HAD NO LIGHTS ON, NO SIRENS ON, AND DRIVES VERY FAST THROUGH THE NEIGHBORHOOD ALL THE TIME.
The NYPD has not released any surveillance video to the public. An unidentified police spokesman told City Room the patrol car was headed "toward a building in the Queensbridge public housing complex where a 911 call had reported a domestic dispute with a knife... Their car hit a man crossing 40th Avenue, mid-block between 10th and 11th Streets. The emergency call on the domestic assault was eventually answered by officers from another sector who did not find any assault with a knife in progress."
The NYPD has not responded to our request for further details about the 911 call. But if Oyamada was in fact leaving the deli next to PDG Variety Store, he would not have been as "mid-block" as one might think. PDG Variety Store is on the corner, and the deli entrance is about 15 feet away from the intersection. (Here it is on Google Maps.)
Japanese news outlets have covered Oyamada's fatality in depth. A Fuji TV segment last week explored conflicting reports from the police and eyewitnesses, in addition to an interview with Oyamada's father, Tsukasu Oyamada:
In addition, there are doubts emerging about the accident. An eye-witness says, “The police car, the siren wasn't on. None.” Another eye-witness also indicated that the siren wasn't on as it rushed forward.However, a police officer states that, “The car’s siren was ringing. The siren was on, the emergency lights were on.” The two claims are completely divergent...After graduating from a jewelry vocational school in Japan, Oyamada sought a new challenge- enrolling as a student in a language school...The speeding patrol car struck Ryo Oyamada as he crossed the road. The police explain that Oyamada was, at the time of the accident, wearing a hoodie and listening to headphones, so he did not notice the approaching NYPD cruiser.
However, while researching this story, eyewitnesses claim that, “the police car wasn’t using a siren. None.” Furthermore, another eye-witness says, “My apartment is directly in front of where the accident happened, and the patrol car was completely silent. They didn’t have any sound or (emergency) lights on.” According to local residents, the siren couldn’t be heard and the lights weren’t on.
However, according to a police officer, “The sirens were on and the lights were on. In general, when a patrol car is responding to an emergency, the siren is on.”...Mr. Oyamada’s father, Tsukasu Oyamada, who had travelled to NYC after hearing of his son’s death, spoke emotionally, “His face was full of holes. I shuddered. This was, I couldn’t imagine that this was my happy Ryo.”
His body had been violently damaged, suggesting that the patrol car was travelling at high speeds when he was struck. Ryo had volunteered in areas struck by disaster, and was remembered as a warm person who was kind to other people. He had seized on a new dream, and had come to the US to pursue it. It led him to a horrible accident, and his family’s grief is only deepening.
Ryo’s older sister spoke about her brother. “He had a number of troubling things that he worried about, but he was doing his best. He sent me an e-mail saying that he planned to do a yearlong study abroad, and that, after one year, he would have something to show for it. So we wouldn’t be able to meet for a little while, and to look forward to it.”
“It’s the most stimulating city on the planet,” says Ryo’s father, “and when he told me, ‘I want to go to New York’ I thought that it was a dangerous city, so I was against it. But I told him to study hard and be safe. That was the last thing.”
The loss of a beloved son is a profound sadness...
Johnson says he was never approached by a cop for a witness interview. "Whatever story they've been putting together is just a bunch of bullwash," Johnson said. "They killed that kid."
Update 2:29 p.m.: Here's a Japanese news show's segment from the scene of the accident, featuring interviews with two witnesses. One Louis Terneo tells the reporter, "The cops was at fault. No siren. They was just going quiet 'cuz they try to creep up."
However, Queensbridge.us reports that the NYPD says it "has NYCHA security video showing that RMP's lights were flashing when victim was struck."
Additional reporting and translation by Daniel De Simone