Epileptic Cab Driver on Trial for Murder for Bronx Sidewalk Killings

Tierre Clark and Kadeem Brown were on a Grand Concourse sidewalk when they were run over and killed by Emilio Garcia.
Tierre Clark and Kadeem Brown were on a Grand Concourse sidewalk when they were run over and killed by Emilio Garcia.

The driver of a green cab who killed a child and a man on a Bronx sidewalk last year was charged with murder.

The Bronx district attorney’s office said Emilio Garcia was not taking his epilepsy medication when he fatally struck 5-year-old Tierre Clark and 25-year-old Kadeem Brown on the Grand Concourse at E. 170th Street on March 20, 2015.

Press accounts published after the crash said Clark injured two other people. One of the injured victims was reportedly a 55-year-old man. The other was Sanequa Howe, Tierre’s mother, who suffered bone fractures.

“When we are waiting for the bus, she gave me a kiss and she was dancing around, she never saw it coming,” Howe told WABC.

Gothamist reported that, according to the DA’s office, Garcia was aware of his epilepsy and had been in another crash, causing injuries to a second driver, four months before Tierre and Brown were killed.

The DA’s office told Streetsblog last October that Garcia was charged with manslaughter and homicide. According to court records, current charges against Garcia are two counts of murder, one count of assault (a class D felony), two counts of negligent homicide (a class E felony), and one misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment.

The case was originally brought by former district attorney Robert Johnson, who held the post for 27 years before stepping down at the end of 2015 to become a New York Supreme Court judge. He was succeeded by Darcel Clark.

In 2008 Auvryn Scarlett killed two Manhattan tourists after he went off his medication and had a seizure while at the wheel of a private garbage truck. Scarlett was convicted of murder, but an appeals court reduced the conviction to manslaughter.

Garcia has been in jail since last October and is currently on trial, court records say.

  • Jules1

    So TLC doesn’t do any kind of medical history check to keep drivers like this off the road?

  • missjulesk

    New York is not a state where doctors are required to report epilepsy to the DMV or any other agency.

    Also, if he had been seizure-free on his medication for more than a year (before he stopped taking the medication, possibly without telling his doctor), he would have been able to get a license. He also may have first obtained a license before being diagnosed with epilepsy.

  • nanter

    Not only are we not required but we are not protected if we violate confidentiality to do so. That’s why none of us do it even though we may feel it is in the public’s best interest.

  • Nelson Diaz

    I KNOW EMILIO GARCIA PERSONALLY. HIS SEIZURES WERE CAUSED BY HIS ADDICTION TO CIGARETTES. THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY IS ALSO AT FAULT FOR PUTTING OUT A PRODUCT THAT CAUSED EMILIO GARCIA TO BE ADDICTED AND HAVE SEIZURES. THE FAMILY OF THE VICTIMS SHOULD TRY TO SUE THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

DA Robert Johnson: Manslaughter Charges for Cab Driver Who Killed Two

By Brad Aaron |
District Attorney Robert Johnson has filed felony charges against the green cab driver who killed two people on a Bronx sidewalk. Johnson’s office told Gothamist Emilio Garcia was off his epilepsy medication when he hit 5-year-old Tierre Clark and Kadeem Brown, 25, at the Grand Concourse and E. 170th Street on March 20. Reports published after the crash […]