Davids' Law
Our objective is to create a law that requires mandatory reporting laws that extend to crime victims in a medical emergency.
On February 19, 2003, our family and community experienced a devastating and tragic loss. Our eldest son, David Patterson, was the victim of an unspeakable crime. He was an eighteen year old Johnson City High school senior attending the birthday party of a "friend." He was shot and killed when the supervising adult decided that a loaded 9 mm beretta would make for an entertaining party favor. David was left to die alone on a bedroom floor. Not one of the five people involved (two of whom were adults) called 911. David was never afforded the possibility of life-saving help.
Five people have been charged, indicted and almost all have been sentenced. The crimes that they were charged with are as follows: tampering with evidence, criminally-negligent homicide and hindering prosecution. Imagine our shock, horror and outrage when we discovered that New York State has no law mandating witnesses to call 911 at the scene of a crime where a medical emergency clearly exists.
