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.
It is sort of like people who walk on or sleep on the railroad tracks.
The outcomes are inevitable and preventable.
To be fair, it is hard to save face when caught in the tall grass by a mower.
Back in my youth, would do a lot of bush hogging and hay making. Gruesome as it is, a bush hog will beat something living to death in no time.
A sickle bar, however, will snip off pieces and move on.
Many a fawn would be found legless in the hay. Very sad.
I feel for operator who was probably doing the best he could.
Mom could pick up the pieces of her body but not give her a place to sleep.
Prob a drug addict who wore out her family but…tough love can endly badly.
These cutting remarks are going far afield.
I’m pretty sure that the psych drugs she was on made her impossible to live with. These chronic homeless have been so damaged by major tranquilizers and ECT that they can no longer function. This problem is not mysterious. Psychiatrists create it because it’s profitable. They can demand public money to “solve” the problem they created. If you doubt this just go out and ask a homeless person about their “treatment” they received before their life went to hell.
Something tells me she didn’t look like that just before the horrible accident.
Well, they are a cut above.
Please, no mow puns. This is series.
The deep pockets are the Gallos.
The biggest wine producer in the world.
Oh Deere.
Dittos, the smell of money brings a lot a love.
I guess this would be a good use of a small drone. Fly it over the field before cutting.
I do a lot of mowing (JD 318) I never mow high grass with out getting off the tractor and walking the area to mow. That is basic safely, I don’t want to wreck my mower on a big piece of steel or big rocks. Whoever was operating the mower is an idiot and should be charged with negligent homicide.
“No job too big or small. We do it all”
I have a field behind me. The owner of that field cuts it in the same way as described here. It is very possible he did not see a person lying on the ground in tall weeds as he drives the tractor. The cutting attachment extends out on both sides farther than the tractor.
The bereaved Dad doesn’t have a good argument because his beautiful child was probably passed out and on drugs if she was laying in a bunch of tall weeds.
So sad for him and his family.
He probably has cut that field many times..........................
Please, no mow puns. This is series.
Anybody want a peanut?
Yep, it was not expected. For all the jokes, it is a sad story for all involved.
So you present the argument , that the family should file lawsuits ,and that this guy should be charged with homicide.
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