The family of Isaac Ward, the 27-year-old man killed in a drunken car crash by a New Rochelle police officer, filed a lawsuit against the cop and the three bars that over-serving the police officer in January 2017. Penelope Ward, Isaac Ward’s mother, said the police officer, Harry Kyreakede, and three local bars – Brazen Fox, Brother Jimmy’s BBQ in White Plains, and Celtic Corner in Dobbs Ferry – should be held responsible for the death of her child because of their “negligence, recklessness, and carelessness.”
Kyreakede was sentenced last year to two-and-a-half to seven years in prison for driving while under the influence last month. A full two hours after the car crash, Kyreakede blood alcohol content, or BAC, was 0.20 percent – more than two times the legal limit of 0.08 percent in New York state.
According to the personal injury lawsuit, both Ward and Kyreakede drank heavily at the three Westchester bars on January 1st, 2017 and into the following morning. Then the two friends got into Kyreakede’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, with the cop choosing to get behind the wheel even though he “was so intoxicated that he was unable to walk properly, had slurred speech, had bloodshot eyes, and openly and obviously smelled from the consumption of alcohol thereafter,” according to the lawsuit filed in a New York Supreme Court in White Plains, New York. The cop only made it a few blocks before driving the SUV into a tree outside of the CVS Pharmacy located at 325 Mamaroneck Ave., according to LoHud.com. Neither men were wearing their seatbelts, and both sustained serious injuries. Ward was given CPR at the scene and later pronounced dead after being transported to White Plains Hospital, according to Armonk Daily Voice.
Kyreakede was dismissed from the police force immediately. Ward’s mother had previously stated that she felt Kyreakede drove drunk that night because he did not believe he would be charged with driving while under the influence because he was a police officer. Kyreakede denied the accusation that his job had anything to do with his decision to get behind the wheel that night and said that the copious amount of drinking led him to “lose the capacity to make the right decision.” The three Westchester bars and their bartenders are also being sued for over-serving Kyreakede and then allowing him to get behind the wheel. According to the New York personal injury lawsuit, the reckless behavior of these bars and bartenders contributed to the death of Isaac Ward.
The Westchester bars and their bartenders declined to comment on the lawsuit.
