New details from last year’s fatal police chase in East Oakland revealed that police may have treated Oakland teacher Marvin Boomer’s girlfriend Nina Woodruff, who was also a bystander seriously injured in the crash, as a suspect and failed to give her treatment at the scene.
Michelle Bernard, an attorney for the family of Marvin Boomer, the Oakland math teacher and bystander who was killed in a horrific crash caused by a suspect fleeing authorities last May, as well as his girlfriend Nina Woodruff, intends to file lawsuits against the California Highway Patrol and the Oakland Police Department this week after receiving no response from the city of Oakland over a legal claim she filed last fall, as Oaklandside reports.
In last fall’s legal filing, Bernard claimed negligence by the city of Oakland over poor road conditions, including a nearby sinkhole, along with the manner in which Oakland police officers responded after the crash. Bernard says CHP also contributed to the crash, claiming officers should have called off the pursuit.
Bernard said in the legal filing that she’s seeking damages between $10 and $18 million for Woodruff’s pain and suffering, which included a traumatic brain injury, a broken arm and other bones, and post-traumatic stress disorder, with a similar estimate for CHP
“The City of Oakland and the California Highway Patrol created the danger,” Bernard wrote in the legal claim, per Oaklandside. “The City of Oakland and the California Highway Patrol are responsible for the consequences.”
In the claim, Bernard provided updated information about the crash, including the fact that neighbors had been filing reports with the city for years about a large sinkhole at the intersection where Boomer was killed. Bernard says that the suspect, Eric Hernandez Garcia was driving “close to 100 miles per hour” that day, and “physics took control” when he hit the sinkhole, according to Oaklandside.
Oaklandside reports that photo and video evidence of the scene from the legal filing shows that Hernandez Garcia first hit a nearby fire hydrant, shearing it completely off, which struck Boomer’s upper body and also may have hit Woodruff. Hernandez Garcia’s car also appears to have come within inches of striking the couple.
“Impact. Violence. Silence. Then screaming. The sound of metal hitting human bone echoed across the street. Pieces of the fire hydrant sheared off and exploded upward as a geyser of water blasted into the air,” Bernard wrote.
The legal filing claims that Oakland police officers failed to provide Woodruff with medical treatment or support when they arrived at the scene, and they allegedly considered her a suspect, leading her to panic and wander off, bleeding and disoriented, until a nearby resident took her to the hospital, per Oaklandside.
“Witnesses heard officers suggest she might have been in the Infiniti that caused the crash. This led Nina — concussed, terrified, bleeding, and in shock — to wander away from the scene instead of receiving medical care,“ Bernard wrote.
Additionally, Bernard names CHP in the claim, alleging that officers pursued Hernandez Garcia at unsafe speeds, failed to perform a risk assessment in a residential neighborhood, and missed two chances to detain him safely. As SFist reported last year, CHP had previously called off the high-speed chase well before the collision, but per the Oaklandside, troopers continued to track and follow him, which Bernard alleges may have frightened Hernandez Garcia, causing him to continue speeding.
Image: Attachment from the legal filing/Oaklandside
