Lawyers say 15-year-old Jumani Jojo Wright would have walked away if others had cared for the city in March. But more importantly, he says, his teenage life has been overlooked in communities of color.
“Why is my child safe? How come my child is not coming home,” said Joseph Wright.
Jumani Wright was reportedly uninjured and had to come home from basketball practice in January, but tragically, the car he was riding in was T-Bond – sending him into a pole. And Jojo didn’t make it home.
“How do I get a parent’s phone call?” Wright said. “How are you working and your wife calls you crying because your son is missing. Your youngest child is missing.”
On Wednesday afternoon, at the intersection of Maple and Front, where JoJo was killed, family and friends of the Uniondale basketball star gathered with their lawyers.
He also asserted a wrongful death claim against the town of Hempstead for failure to maintain an intersection.
“Here in the town of Hempstead at Front Street and Maple Avenue this dangerous, defective death trap was well known,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
A debris signal was posted at the intersection, but family members say improvements weren’t far off.
“We’re calling on the town and all municipalities to avoid the infrastructure dollars that President Biden talked about just a few days ago,” said family attorney Heather M. Palmer. “To ensure that communities of color are prioritized.”
Hampstead Town Board said on Wednesday: “The town is not commenting on ongoing litigation”.
“How many kids are going to die? When are we going to be here again? It’s an easy fix,” Wright said.
Yes New Jersey mother planning to kill infant daughter and son: Investigators
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