A 27-year-old homeless woman was killed recently when a lawnmower ran over her while she was sleeping in a park in Modesto, California.
Christine Chavez was killed in Beard Brook Park on July 8, according to KXTV-TV.
“My mom had to pick up pieces of her. That’s not correct,” Randy Chavez, the victim’s brother, said, according to the Modesto Bee.
“We want ordinances to change so it doesn’t happen again. Regardless if they are homeless they are still people and should be treated the same as any other people,” he said.
The park had been public, and at one time was an authorized area for homeless people to sleep. It is now private land owned by the E.&J. Gallo Winery in a deal that was completed the day before Chavez was killed.
The family of a 27-year-old homeless woman in Modesto want somebody held accountable after she was found dead in the grass after a lawn mower ran her over. https://t.co/XYvo74Up2z
— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) July 14, 2023
Gallo representative Krista Noonan said the winery hired a contractor “to perform weed abatement and fire prevention services.”
The statement described Chavez’s death as “an accident at approximately 12:00 p.m. involving the contractor’s tractor and an individual who was not visible and laying in a tall, weeded area.”
Sharon Bear, a representative of the Modesto Police Department, said a Grover Landscape Services employee was using a riding John Deere tractor with a pull-behind mower when the incident took place, according to KXTV.
The company issued a statement that said, “In a dry, overgrown area, our operator discovered the body of a woman impacted by the pull-behind mower.”
Dez Martinez, an advocate for the homeless who founded the group CEO & We Are Not Invisible said last week during a memorial service for Chavez that she was disgusted by what had taken place, saying that five days after Chavez was killed, the area was “still not cordoned off. It’s not taped off. There’s no one here to pick up the remaining parts that are still here.”
Martinez said homeless people sleep at high noon because it is safe.
“We have to stay up all night because it’s dangerous to sleep at night. You might be raped, stabbed, murdered,” she said. “When the daytime comes, it’s time to go to sleep, it’s broad daylight, there’s a lot of traffic, a lot of people, what’s going to happen to me?”
Christopher Chavez was angry over the way his daughter’s death has been treated, according to KYMA-TV.
“I know that, if you are driving a tractor, you can see even if…the small ropes. You see, I mean…one person. You will see one person in front of you,” Chavez said.
“I keep going because I need to. I, I, I’m looking for justice, and I’m going to, I’m going to be there until, until something happens.” Chavez added.
Martinez said the victim deserves to be remembered as a person, not an object, according to KCRA-TV.
“Just because people are unhoused, it doesn’t mean they don’t have family. It doesn’t mean they’re not somebody’s daughter or son,” Martinez said.
“She was a beautiful girl, beautiful young girl. She had a family that loved her, and, and, and for the trauma that they’re going to have to endure for the rest of their lives, this is, this is visions they will never get out of their head,” Martinez added, according to KYMA.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
