A 16-Year-Old Indigenous Boy Has Died After Being Hit By A Police Car In Sydney
Jai Wright was meant to start an apprenticeship on Monday.
An Indigenous teenager has died on Sunday after a head-on collision with a police car in Sydney.
Jai Wright was riding a trail bike in the Inner West suburb of Eveleigh on Saturday morning when he was hit by an unmarked sedan responding to a job in the area. Wright was travelling in a bike lane when the car — coming from the opposite direction — hit him near an intersection. His helmet was thrown 10 metres away from the site of impact, and he was taken to hospital with critical head injuries.
The 16-year-old was from Revesby, southwest of Eveleigh. He is being remembered by his family as a “really loving boy”, telling the Sydney Morning Herald he would “light up the room and make us smile”.
“Everyone wanted to be around him. He was funny and quirky,” said his father Lachlan Wright, explaining how Jai was about to start an electrician apprenticeship on Monday.
A police report said the vehicle collided with the bike, however his parents were told a different story. A senior police officer said to them that there was no police chase with Wright involved, and that the teen allegedly hit a bump from his bike, became airborne, before then hitting a parked car.
“I said to him, ‘The boss was just down here and told us a completely different story to what you’re telling us now’,” said Lachlan to the SMH. “It was really dismissive. All of us were shocked.”
The tragedy comes the same week as the 18th anniversary of TJ Hickey’s death in neighbouring suburb Redfern. The 17-year-old was impaled during a police pursuit in 2004 less than a kilometre away from Wright’s collision.
NSW Police said an incident investigation is currently underway, which will then be subject to an independent review. A memorial mural has been established near St Peters train station with Wright’s name and year of passing.
Photo Credit: Thomas Wright/Facebook