Friend of Elderly Man Says Police Ran Over Him Too

Daniel Puerto lost his life Sunday night after being hit by a minivan while sitting on George Price Highway in Roaring Creek Village. 

A close friend, Albert Budd, recalled speaking to him moments before the accident, offering him a ride home. “By the time I put down my food upstairs, where I live, all I heard was ‘bang’. I just came back out to him, and my cousin knocked him down,” Budd said.

Budd says that Puerto, 70, was run over a second time by a police mobile. “He was down there almost a whole hour. And then the mobile still ran over his head. The police mobile they put him in, they still ran over his head too.”

Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, speaking at a press briefing today, provided details on the incident: “Sometime after 10:25 PM, the driver of the minivan was travelling in that vicinity when the minivan collided with Puerto, who is alleged to have been sitting down on the highway at that time. The minivan has since been impounded for processing.”  Smith told reporters that a notice of intended prosecution has been issued to Michael McFadzean. 

Smith noted that, in relation to the driver, there was “no indication at that time to suggest that he was inebriated.” For the victim, she said a post-mortem examination will determine whether alcohol or drugs played a role. She also confirmed that sitting on the road was something the victim “does regularly.”