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Brooklyn Mother Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit After Daughter's Death

A Brooklyn police officer has been suspended after he allegedly refused to help a young girl dying of an asthma attack. At the same time, the mother of the girl is planning on filing a wrongful death lawsuit regarding the matter.

Carmen Ojeda was rushing her daughter, 11-year-old Briana Ojeda, to the emergency room during an asthma attack when she turned the wrong way down a one-way street and struck a car. A police officer, Alfonso Mendez, detained the two at the scene of the accident and refused to give the girl CPR. Finally, he escorted the pair to the Long Island College Hospital, where the girl was pronounced dead. Mendez, who was trained in CPR when he became a cop five years ago, did not report the incident in his police log and had to be picked out of a lineup by witnesses after a weeklong search.

Mendez said that someone was already doing CPR when he arrived at the Carroll Gardens accident scene and that there was an oxygen mask present. It is not clear why he did not report the incident or why he didn’t come forward when police began looking for the officer involved in the matter. Carmen Ojeda believes that the officer’s behavior wasted precious time that could have saved her daughter’s life.

Briana Ojeda was buried this week, with a crowd of mourners wearing white at her mother’s request attending the funeral.

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