Posted on 07/18/2023 7:31:22 AM PDT by Red Badger
A 27-year-old homeless woman was killed recently when a lawnmower ran over her while she was sleeping in a park in Modesto, California.
Christine Chavez was killed in Beard Brook Park on July 8, according to KXTV-TV.
“My mom had to pick up pieces of her. That’s not correct,” Randy Chavez, the victim’s brother, said, according to the Modesto Bee.
“We want ordinances to change so it doesn’t happen again. Regardless if they are homeless they are still people and should be treated the same as any other people,” he said.
The park had been public, and at one time was an authorized area for homeless people to sleep. It is now private land owned by the E.&J. Gallo Winery in a deal that was completed the day before Chavez was killed.
Gallo representative Krista Noonan said the winery hired a contractor “to perform weed abatement and fire prevention services.”
The statement described Chavez’s death as “an accident at approximately 12:00 p.m. involving the contractor’s tractor and an individual who was not visible and laying in a tall, weeded area.”
Sharon Bear, a representative of the Modesto Police Department, said a Grover Landscape Services employee was using a riding John Deere tractor with a pull-behind mower when the incident took place, according to KXTV.
The company issued a statement that said, “In a dry, overgrown area, our operator discovered the body of a woman impacted by the pull-behind mower.”
Dez Martinez, an advocate for the homeless who founded the group CEO & We Are Not Invisible said last week during a memorial service for Chavez that she was disgusted by what had taken place, saying that five days after Chavez was killed, the area was “still not cordoned off. It’s not taped off. There’s no one here to pick up the remaining parts that are still here.”
Martinez said homeless people sleep at high noon because it is safe.
“We have to stay up all night because it’s dangerous to sleep at night. You might be raped, stabbed, murdered,” she said. “When the daytime comes, it’s time to go to sleep, it’s broad daylight, there’s a lot of traffic, a lot of people, what’s going to happen to me?”
Christopher Chavez was angry over the way his daughter’s death has been treated, according to KYMA-TV.
“I know that, if you are driving a tractor, you can see even if…the small ropes. You see, I mean…one person. You will see one person in front of you,” Chavez said.
“I keep going because I need to. I, I, I’m looking for justice, and I’m going to, I’m going to be there until, until something happens.” Chavez added.
Martinez said the victim deserves to be remembered as a person, not an object, according to KCRA-TV.
“Just because people are unhoused, it doesn’t mean they don’t have family. It doesn’t mean they’re not somebody’s daughter or son,” Martinez said.
“She was a beautiful girl, beautiful young girl. She had a family that loved her, and, and, and for the trauma that they’re going to have to endure for the rest of their lives, this is, this is visions they will never get out of their head,” Martinez added, according to KYMA.
The question I have is how did she not hear the tractor? Aren’t they pretty loud?
“When the daytime comes, it’s time to go to sleep, it’s broad daylight, there’s a lot of traffic, a lot of people, what’s going to happen to me?”
That’s BS right there.
It’s been over 100deg.
Some of this is click bate boiler plate. I’ve evicted some people with lots of family. They’re homeless because they and their drug habit have burned the bridges long ago. The family has changed their locks to protect their property. And you you have to ask how did she sleep through a mower approaching? Dead or stoned.
How do we know she was alive when it happened? Tractors and brush-hogs are kinda loud.
Unfortunately, many "homeless" are also drug or alcohol abusers and "pass out" and thus aren't light sleepers. Blame the state for a lack of a homeless policy. They really should have defined "park" areas for tent cities and medical teams, all AWAY from schools and the general population.
Didn’t this just happen in Texas too?
how do you know they didn’t? They have said they let her stay with them whenever she asked. You can’t force someone to accept what you offer.
Had to be a brush hog mowing high grass/weeds. Driver would not have seen her if it was a large tractor.
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Of course, it was a sizeable cutting rig. The author makes it seem as if it was a riding lawnmower. I have a John Deere cutter and a 50-hp tractor that will destroy three-inch trees in my path. Since the property was being sold, the likely explanation is that the overgrown land was being cleared for sale. It had to have been an awful traumatizing event for the tractor operator. I chopped up a nesting wild turkey a while back and I can remember it to this day.
The government doesn’t allow family to institutionalize individuals with mental or drug problems. There is not enough details to blame the family however, they shouldn’t be so quick to blame others.
The 27-year-old lady was “sleeping” in the park at noon. There are places to stay for the homeless, but these places have rules. It would be difficult to “sleep” in the park with a brush hog mowing close by without use of some drug or alcohol.
Prayers for all those effected.
“while she was sleeping”
I don’t think so. People who are sleeping will hear a lawn mower and wake up. Sounds to me like she was blacked out.
I deserve the clipping. I must have been half in the bag when I posted that.
Not that I know of.................
Its unusual for young women to be homeless. They can usually find a man who will take them in.
She was probably drunk or drugged up and passed out..................
“Well other than that one incident, how did the mowing job go”?
Depending upon how big the mower was, you wouldn’t see her in the grass.
My pull behind Woods mower is 12 ft wide. They make fold out bat wing pull behind mowers that are 42 foot wide.(FX-742 ROTARY CUTTER) You cannot see everything.
Sounds like passed out on drugs.
Be careful. You’re edging closer to getting your posts removed.
I smell a lawsuit coming. They didn’t care enough for her to keep from sleeping in the park, but they’ll love her enough to sue Gallo and the lawn care company for millions. They love her a lot more now.
They’ll sue the tractor company, or whomever has the deepest pockets.
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