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GIRARD – The family of a Girard High School student who was struck and injured by a police cruiser last spring during a Prom Promise event at the school has filed a lawsuit against the Girard City School District, Girard city and police officer Robert Williams, who was driving the cruiser.
The lawsuit was filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court by the family of Jeremiah Hunter, including his mother Tina Hunter, father, Ash Tolbert and brother, Josiah Hunter.
The suit states that Jeremiah Hunter, who was injured, was participating in a mock OVI crash on May 1, 2025, as part of a high school Prom Promise event meant to show students the dangers of distracted or impaired driving after prom. The event took place in the back parking lot of Girard High School with wrecked cars and a live reenactment of a crash scene.
Hunter was playing the part of a person who died in the mock crash and was lying still on his back on the pavement in the parking lot. Because he was playing the part of someone who died, he had a sheet over him that covered his entire body except for his shoes, the suit states.
The suit states members of the fire department who were assisting with the event placed Hunter directly in the path of a city police cruiser driven by Williams. As Hunter was lying in front of the cruiser, other fire department members performed a rescue of people in a vehicle that was being used for the demonstration as being involved in an OVI accident, the suit states.
Williams was questioning the student playing the driver of that vehicle, performing sobriety tests on that student, and then pulled away, and as he did, the cruiser rolled over Hunter's right hand and leg. Hunter suffered a cut to his middle finger, scrapes and bruises and had a tire track on his thigh, the suit states.
The suit said Williams made no attempt to avoid Hunter, who was run over. Hunter was treated at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for his injuries.
The suit also states the firefighters and school district personnel on scene were negligent because they placed the student in the path of the cruiser.
The suit, which requests a trial by jury, asks for compensatory and punitive damages. It has been assigned to Judge Cynthia L. Westcott.