Why You Need Journalists

Something stinks in Buffalo and it isn’t just the city’s hockey team.

Buffalo is located in Erie County and the chief of narcotics for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office recently crashed a pickup into seven parked vehicles on a Buffalo street back in April.

The Buffalo News writes that it appears as though the only legal consequences D.J. Granville faced was a ticket for driving the wrong way on a one-way street.

In a press conference Sheriff John Garcia repeatedly referred to what happened as a “car accident.” “The Buffalo Police Department is doing an internal affairs investigation, so, until that concludes, for me it’s a car accident. I haven’t heard otherwise,” Garcia said.

Tegna’s WGRZ was one of the first to report the story and in a public records request for body-worn camera footage from a Buffalo police officer who responded to the crash, WGRZ was told there was no footage.

In to make this stink even more, Granville’s sister-in-law, Buffalo Police Lt. Lucia Esquilin, signed at least some of the police reports from the incident, the outlet reported.

Under the Freedom of Information Law, The Buffalo News last year requested documents related to the crashes from the Sheriff’s Office and Buffalo police, but were not provided with any from the incident involving Granville.

This is a story where the media has to stay on top and continue to push for answers. If the police can bury this incident, they will feel like they can do it over and over.