A heartbroken Brooklyn mom says a police officer failed to help her as she desperately tried to get her daughter to the hospital following an asthma attack.
Eleven-year-old Briana Ojeda died shortly after arriving at Long Island College Hospital last Friday. Her mother Carmen Ojeda rushed her to the facility after her daughter suffered a asthma attack at Carroll Park in Carroll Gardens.
Carmen Ojeda called 911 shortly after 5:00 p.m. but decided to drive her daughter to the hospital herself. To avoid traffic, Ojeda drove her Chevy Tahoe the wrong way down Henry Street. After she was boxed in on the one-way street, she said she asked an NYPD officer for help.
"I stopped and I screamed for him,'Help me please, can you help me? Can you assist me give my daughter mouth to mouth?'" Carmen Ojeda told NBCNewYork. "He told me he didn't know CPR. The officer's just standing there -- he's telling me I can't leave because I have to wait for the ambulance."
Briana's father, Michael Ojeda, was heartbroken when NBCNewYork spoke to him on Monday. "If only she could have stayed with me a few more days," he sobbed. "I left for work and that's the last time I saw her!"
Police department brass are trying to determine whether an NYPD officer was involved. The NYPD said they interviewed every officer at the local precinct and none said they were at the scene.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said that it was unclear if the man Ojeda spoke to was an NYPD officer at all.
"The woman had already struck another car when she got out and approached who she thought was an officer and asked for his help," Browne said. "We have not yet determined whether he was an NYPD officer or some other uniformed individual, such as an auxiliary or a traffic agent or a look-alike entity."
Browne did say that all NYPD officers get CPR training, but he added, "None of the witnesses could recall a name tag, badge number or whether the individual had a gun belt. Typically uniformed NYPD officers are in pairs. This individual was alone."
