JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police are investigating after a pedestrian was struck by a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office cruiser on Century Street in Arlington just after 10 a.m. Friday.
Sgt. Donald Washington said two officers were in a marked patrol car responding to a burglary call with emergency lights and siren on when they turned onto Century Street and tried to pass two vehicles stopped in the road.
Washington said one of the cars turned left as the cruiser was passing it. When Officer B.R. Watkins swerved to avoid a crash, his car clipped the pedestrian.
Roberto Santiago, 53, was knocked to the ground and bruised his leg. Police said he also complained of back injuries and was taken to Memorial Hospital for observation.
The cruiser and Joseph Saliba's Pontiac Vibe also collided, causing minor damage. Saliba was cited with causing the crash.
"Being that the officers were in emergency mode and they were running around, the Pontiac is going to be at fault for making the illegal left turn without checking to make sure they were being overtaken," said Donald Washington, of JSO.
Saliba was essentially blamed for causing the crash, and when that report went public Saliba's son, Benjamin Saliba, wasn't happy because he saw surveillance video of the crash, which he believes tells a different story.
"I was just going to take to my lawyer to fight the citation, but once I saw on the news that my father is the reason for the crash and the guy that got hit is Robert, a good friend of mine, so I'm not going to take that," said Benjamin Saliba.
Police told News4Jax the police car had its lights on, which are visible in the video, but they also told us the sirens were going.
Benjamin Saliba told News4Jax witnesses said they heard no siren.
"Without those sirens, how's he supposed to know someone is coming from behind? And on the citation it says he failed to yield to oncoming traffic," said Benjamin Saliba. "Patrol car coming from behind, and there's no way he knew this."
Benjamin Saliba said since his dad was simply cited with a ticket for the crash he wasn't planning on make an issue of the crash, but when he saw his dad's name publicly released as the man who caused the crash, he started planning to hire an attorney.
"My dad is a good guy. If it was his fault, it was his fault, but to go on the news available to everybody that he's caused this incident, but it wasn't," Benjamin Saliba said.
Fortunately none of the injuries in the crash was serious, and that included the man who was hit. He was sent to the hospital and should recover.
Century Street was closed until about 12:30 p.m. while the accident was investigated and cleared.