Last spring, a 27-year-old Bronx man was fatally struck by a police car after being chased for allegedly stealing bricks. There is still an open investigation into whether Tamon Robinson was stealing bricks, or whether he actually had permission to take paving stones on the grounds of the Bayview Houses in Canarsie where he lived. But his mother has been sent a $710 bill to repair the police car that killed him: “We’re still grieving, and this is like a slap in the face,” Laverne Dobbinson told The News. “They want my son to pay for damage to the vehicle that killed him. It’s crazy.”
The letter with the bill, which is owed for “property damage to a vehicle owned by the New York Police Department,” also threatened legal action against the family if they didn't pay. “Isn’t there respect for the dead?” asked John Torrence, the victim’s uncle. Dobbinson’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, has filed a notice of intent to sue the city, calling the bill a “disgrace.” “In my 40 years of practicing law in this city I have never seen anything as heartless as this,” he said.
