A five year old girl passed away on Saturday, November 25, after a car collision with a police truck in Auburndale, Florida.
Jalina Anglin, 5, was riding in the backseat of her mother’s Kia Sedan when the accident occurred around 10 p.m. on US 92 (Magnolia Avenue) highway at the intersection of Havendale Boulevard.
The police sergeant involved, who’s name hasn’t been disclosed to the media, was responding to an emergency call and had his lights flashing and siren on. The sergeant was driving east down US 92 on route to the scene. At the same time, Anglin’s mother, Jer’Manica Anglin, was driving into the intersection. Approaching the incident, traffic was being held at the light which then turned green for northbound drivers. Anglin said she heard the police sirens but the car ahead of her moved forward-which prompted her to drive.
The Kia and police truck then crashed in the middle of the intersection. The police sergeant didn’t sustain any injuries, whereas Jer’Manica Anglin suffered a broken wrist and Jalina Anglin was pronounced dead at the hospital later that night due to head trauma.
Following the tragedy, local authorities launched an investigation into the accident. They concluded that both Anglin’s mother and the police sergeant were wearing seatbelts, but that whether Jalina’s seatbelt was on was still under investigation.
According to Bay News 9, Jalina’s family stated that this public inspection of the five year old’s seat belt usage has terrorized the family as they have been receiving threats. They also are calling upon the Auburndale Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Justice to look into the police sergeant as they believe he should be fired, and the validity of the Sheriff’s office’s statement on Jalina’s seat belt should be looked into. The family and their defense found concerns over the police sergeant’s speed and lack of assistance following the accident.
“I don’t have my Lina no more,” said Jalina’s grandmother, LaTrice McKinnis to Bay News 9. McKinnis and her granddaughter shared a special connection that has left her heartbroken. “She was with me the night her mom picked her up, and then I got that call about ten, 15 minutes later to my son that she wasn’t breathing.”
On Monday, December 4, Anglin’s family was joined by groups, Black Lives Matter Restoration, Inc. and the Poor and Minority Justice Association that night as they gathered in front of the Auburndale Police Department in an effort to get their concerns addressed.
“This family is living a nightmare,” said co-founder of Black Lives Matter Restoration, Inc., Minister Carl Soto at the demonstration. “In addition to having to prepare for the funeral services, they are now having to deal with unwanted scrutiny due to misrepresented allegations that lack merit.”
“To have inflammatory words said about the father and the mother — they’re getting calls that they need to be put in jail, they’re murderers of the child, getting calls like that, threat calls against their life, because of inflammatory statements made, and they don’t have all the facts,” said Jalina’s great-grandfather, Collins Hardee.
