Police Chief Tandy Carter’s press conference this morning produces nothing new — at least, nothing that you would call a firm fact.
I feel like the chief held it to be able to say he had been fully available to the press. The session ended fairly abruptly with the chief saying he had been honest with the assembled media, and then walking quickly from the room, the door closing behind him.
Bottom line: He’s not turning the Benjamin accident over to any other agency (he basically implied that the reason a trooper was called to the scene was to back up the city cops’ belief that there were no signs of impairment), and he’s not prepared to answer any questions of substance as to what happened until the investigation is complete.
I did hear one thing I hadn’t heard before — Temple Ligon asked a question based on the assumption that Steve’s headlights weren’t on at the time of the 5:30 a.m. accident. But the chief was no more prepared to confirm or deny that than anything else.
One of the things holding up the investigation — they’d like to talk to Ms. Rubens, but her condition is not yet good enough to allow them to do that.
Other main sources of evidence in the probe — the eyewitnesses, and a “black box” in the Mercedes.
Which reminds me — I have an idea that I know who one of those eyewitnesses was. I’m going to check that out.
I’ll have video from the news conference whenever I can get it uploaded to YouTube.
Look, why are we trying so hard to assess blame here. Suppose Steve was driving with his face in his cellphone, ran a red light and hit the woman. Who among us has not done something that dangerous–say been on the phone, which is dangerous but legal, driven after a few drinks, although we were under the limit, or just simply distracted by our thoughts. People make mistakes. It’s called being human. It’s what you do after you make the mistake that shows who you are. As Todd said earlier, Steve seems to be doing his best to make sure the process is fair and just.
Kathryn: Yours is the most fair statement I have seen anyone write anywhere. I totally agree with you. The Mayor-elect has been fighting for people like Ms. Reubens for the 20 years I have known him. IF he is even at fault, this was not an intentional act by him. To my knowledge, no official blame has been decided in this matter by anyone in any authority, and folks need to bear that in mind before they write some of the absolute swill I have read elsewhere.