Moment eight-year-old boy on his dirt bike is hit by police patrol car as his excruciating injuries are revealed
A child is fighting for his life after he was hit by a Florida police patrol car while riding his dirt bike.
Gerard Butler, eight, was riding his dirt bike Monday evening when an officer leaving the scene of a call struck him at the intersection of 23rd Street and Maple Avenue.
The officer shouted ‘oh f***!’ When he realized what he had done, heartbreaking CCTV footage of his body was revealed.
He was flown to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, ABC7 reported, with a series of serious injuries.
Gerard’s mother, Regina Sanders, told the story WHITSP her son underwent two brain surgeries and a knee surgery. As of Wednesday, he was awaiting jaw surgery.
Shocking body camera footage showed a Sarasota police officer performing life-saving measures on 8-year-old Gerard Butler after another officer hit him with a police car
The eight-year-old’s dirt bike ended up under the police car after he was hit
Shortly after the accident, shocked community members and family members frantically ran toward the child, who lay limp and unconscious on the ground.
“That’s my cousin!” a man shouted as the chaos unfolded.
More officers arrived on the scene to perform life-saving measures before carrying Gerard to an ambulance.
She told ABC7 on Thursday that Gerard has only made progress since the accident, coughing and moving his legs slightly.
The heartbroken mother believes the officer was speeding when he hit her son.
Gerard was riding his dirt bike through an intersection when the officer hit him
Footage from another body camera showed the child riding his dirt bike down the street before being hit by a police car
She told WTSP, “The police, you just see them flying at least 60 miles and they don’t care that the stop signs are just flying through the roads.
‘The police teach us not to drive too fast in residential areas. They have a speed limit on the side of the road for a reason. Whether he got a call or not, you didn’t have to go that fast.’
Sarasota police released a statement and body camera footage on Wednesday.
Chief Rex Troche said police are working with the Florida Highway Patrol to investigate the crash. He asserted that the department is committed to transparency.
The speed at which the officer was traveling has not been confirmed.
During the investigation, the official was placed on a restrictive administrative task.
Panicked family and community members ran to Gerard as the officer jumped out of the patrol car
More police arrived on the scene as terrified witnesses screamed
“Our thoughts are with the child and his family,” Troche said.
The department said the officer was uninjured but was “shocked” by the incident.
Sanders told WTSP that the dirt bike was Gerard’s early birthday present and was only received by him a few days before the near-fatal crash.
Gerard was on his way home when he was hit because he was afraid of police activity in the area, she added.
Chief Rex Troche made a statement about the incident, alongside the body camera footage
“I was inside and I just heard something scraping and then you just see the little minibike there,” she added.
While her son is in the hospital, Sanders told ABC7 she is “just trying to be strong” for her two other children.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” the mother said.