A teenager in St. Louis who was involved in a car accident claims that as he lay injured and other people were dying around him, he was robbed by a firefighter at the scene.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seven Robinson-Laney was a victim on the morning of Feb. 26 when a hit-and-run driver struck him. Four of his friends were killed in the crash. But, to add insult to injury, Robinson-Laney says that a St. Louis firefighter may have taken his wallet, credit cards, and several hundred dollars in cash, along with two gift cards he received for his 18th birthday.
Although there is a video of the firefighter placing the victim’s wallet inside his coat, there have been no arrests since the crash occurred over a month ago.
“And he fits the description of what I gave them,” Robinson-Laney said.
The fatal car accident occurred at about 1:30 a.m. on a Sunday at South Grand Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue. Thirty-four-year-old Cedric Dixon allegedly ran a red light and struck the SUV Robinson-Laney was a passenger in. On the morning of Feb. 26, four of the eight people riding in the Chevy Tahoe died.
The people killed in the crash were Anthony Robinson, 19; Richard Boyd, 19; Bryanna Dentman-Johnson, 18; and Corntrail McKinley, 20. Four others, including Robinson-Laney, sustained injuries but survived the crash.
Several days after the accident, on March 3, Dixon turned himself in to the police. He has been charged with 17 felonies and is being held without bond.
Robinson-Laney recalled getting himself out of the SUV and on the street on Forest Park Avenue. He remembered several people coming to help him. A man he thought was a police officer asked if he had any identification on him. After Robinson-Laney took out his wallet — a Christmas gift from his grandmother with his initials, “SMRL,” on it — and handed it to the man. He says the man took out the ID, checked it, and handed it back to him, but without the wallet.
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I’d lost a lot of blood and my vision was blurred, and I said, ‘Man, I don’t even know your name,’” Robinson-Laney said. “And he just told me not to worry, saying, ‘You’re good, you’re good.’”But he wasn’t.
He had over $600 in cash and two $50 gift cards he received as birthday gifts.
After leaving the hospital two days later, he checked his bank records online and saw some questionable charges on his debit card in West St. Louis County. He ended up contesting three of those charges, for about $120, at two locations in Chesterfield and one in Ellisville.
After Robinson-Laney and his mother went to the police station to view video footage, they saw the man going through his wallet and handing him his ID. Cops told him that he was a firefighter. Police officers interviewed the man and said he claimed that he had accidentally used the card, mistaking it for his own because he also had one issued by the same credit union.
Although they’ve talked to the firefighter, he still hasn’t been arrested or charged.
His mother, Kyona Robinson, said she is upset that someone took advantage of her son while others died at the scene.
“I can’t believe someone would use this as an opportunity to steal. That’s just horrible,” she said. “I just want justice for my son.”