Dallas Police Chief Embarassed Over Fateful Traffic Stop
By L.P. Phillips
A humble Dallas Police chief David Kunkle appeared before the media today, hat in hand.
"I want tro issue a personal apology and also an apololgy on behalf of the Dallas Police Department to the family of Jonetta Collingsworth."
Mrs. Collingsworth is the deceased mother-in-law of NFL running back Ryan Moats, and the incident that happened to family members last week has touched-off a firestorm.
In the early morning hours of March 17th Moats got a phone call to get the family to a Plano hospital as soon as possible because his mother-in-law was minutes away from death from breast cancer. In driving, Moats stopped at a red light. But he didn't wait for it to change and continued driving to the hospital.
Dallas police officer Robert Powell pulled behind Moats' SUV outside the hospital emergency room. But even after learning the dire nature of the situation...Powell would not let some family members go until he finished lecturing Moats and finished writing a ticket, some 13-minutes later. By that time Mrs. Collingsworth had died.
Kunkle says he's embarassed about a number of things Powell did.
"The berating of Mr. Moats about the insurance card, he could be arrested. He neededd to comply with the officer." said Kunkle. "The fact that hospital personnel tried to intervene because they knew the emergency nature of what the Moats were responding to and how importatnt it was to be with their dying mother and mother-in-law.
In an interview with "105.3 The Fan" Moats says he still can't understand why Powell acted as he did.
"We were at an emergency room entrance, we were at a hospital, we had our hazard lights on, but we were not reckless at all." Moats said. "All I know is what he did was wrong. He stole a moment away from me I can never get back."
Kunkle said Powell has been put on administrative leave and will face charges that could cost him his job.
Powell has not been available for comment.
Click here to here the apology from Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle.
Click here to listen to Ryan Moats talk about the ordeal on sister station 105.3 The Fan.
Below is the dashboard cam video from the officers car. (The video is in 4 parts due to length.)
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