Spokesman: Family of teen killed by US diplomat’s wife felt ‘ambushed’ at White House
An attorney for the parents of a British teenager killed in a car crash involving a U.S. diplomat’s wife said President Trump’s national security advisor “heaped pain and grief” on them with his efforts to arrange a meeting with the driver, according to Reuters.
Harry Dunn, 19, was killed after his motorcycle was hit by a car driven by Anne Sacoolas near the RAF Croughton Air Force base in Northamptonshire. Dunn’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, were invited to a White House meeting with President Trump on Wednesday, at which point they were told Sacoolas was in the next room, according to their lawyer, Mark Stephens.
{mosads}National security adviser Robert O’Brien “heaped grief and pain on the family by making them go through this but not allowing them to get the closure they need by talking to Mrs. Sacoolas before they can go onto the grieving stage,” Stephens told BBC Radio, adding that the proposed meeting was to conclude with a photo opportunity where they embraced.
“It struck us that this meeting was hastily arranged by nincompoops on the run and in particular Mr. O’Brien, who appeared to be extremely uptight and aggressive and did not come across at all well in this meeting which required careful handling and sensitivity,” Dunn family spokesman Radd Seiger wrote in a statement on the family’s GoFundMe page.
“The family remain open to the possibility of meeting Mrs. Sacoolas one day in the future but in a neutral and appropriately controlled environment,” Seiger added.
Sacoolas left the United Kingdom in September after Dunn’s death, claiming she is protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity. Dunn and Charles have since been on a media blitz calling for Sacoolas to return to the U.K. to face potential prosecution. Seiger told The Daily Beast they would be willing to meet with her eventually, but only on British soil.
“We said no because as we’ve been saying from the start we want to meet Mrs Sacoolas but we want to do it in the UK so the police can interview her. We didn’t want to be sort of railroaded, not into a circus as such, but a meeting we weren’t prepared for,” Tim Dunn said, according to Reuters.
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