ISSUE #6
WEAZEL NEWS S.A
Diego's Story
By Gracie Grant
Diego’s ordeal is a stark illustration of how police incompetence can compound trauma rather than prevent it. According to his account, Diego was trying to allegedly flee a robbery on foot when LSPD officers found him on a bridge, then tazed and cuffed him, and placed him into the vehicle of Sergeant Chris McGringle. He was transported to VPD, where basic procedure quickly unraveled. A probationary officer processed Diego under the supervision of a senior officer, but during the search the cadet seized not just the batteries from Diego’s phone, as required, but the entire phone itself, along with a knife and Diego’s radio. The officers then left the cell area. Diego was then alone, unattended and forgotten in a holding cell for more than an hour, with no contact, no explanation, and not a single charge read to him. The true tragedy, however, did not
fully emerge until later: the officer who took Diego’s belongings had lost them entirely. After another hour at VPD spent searching in vain, senior officer Brooklyn Baker ultimately informed Diego that his phone would never be recovered. Speaking to Weazel News reporter Gracie Grant, Diego described the loss in raw terms: “All of my memories are on that phone. Everything I have done in the city, conversations with people that are no longer with us, contacts that I can no longer call, all the photos from my wedding lost forever, video diaries about making Diego’s Dijon… all gone.” While Diego did receive some compensation, it could not restore what was lost memories, history, and pieces of a life lived, gone forever, underscoring how careless policing can have devastating consequences.
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