By Brenna R. Kelly
bkelly@nky.com
ELSMERE – Three-year-old Zashawn Comer stood at the doorway watching as his mother was run over by a car and killed Monday night.
But by Tuesday afternoon, the toddler still thought his mother, 23-year-old Nikkia Comer, was at the hospital.
• http://news.cincinnati.com/assets/AB148138128.MP3" target="_new">Hear driver's 911 call
His grandmother was trying to figure out how the tell the little boy his mother was gone.
“She was joyful, very giggly,” said Comer’s mother,Dorothy Owens. “It just doesn’t seem real. She ain’t supposed to be dead.”
Comer, the mother of two, died trapped under the Dodge Neon that ran over her in front of her Plymouth Lane home, said Elsmere Police Sgt. Todd Cummins. The driver, Comer’s former boyfriend, Clifford Gardenhire, 25, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Gardenhire called 911 and stayed there until police arrived.
“I just had an accident man, I’m on Plymouth,” he said in the call. “Man, I accidentally killed my baby’s mama.”
The dispatcher responded: “Ok, how’d you do that, sir?”
“She jumped on my car and I’m trying to get away and she flipped (unintelligible) and I accidentally ran her over,” he said. “I’m staying right here and I’m not going no where, I’m not trying to run. It was an accident.”
Gardenhire, who is being held on $10,000 cash bond in the Kenton County jail, is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 15.
Gardenhire and Comer, who have a 2-year-old son, have a tumultuous past that included Gardenhire securing a domestic violence protection order against Comer last March.
Under the order, Comer wasn’t supposed to come within 500 feet of Gardenhire.
But it was Gardenhire, of Cincinnati, who repeatedly came to Comer’s home, said her mother.
“She was abiding by it, she was like ‘leave me alone,’” Owens said. “He was mad because she wouldn’t go back with him.”
Gardenhire had custody of the couple’s son, Trey, and Comer could only see the boy through him, her mother said.
In January, Comer was charged with second-degree assault after Gardenhire told police that Comer cut him on the hand with a knife. Comer told police that Gardenhire grabbed and scratched her face at the Erlanger home the couple shared.
According to the police report, Comer went to a bathroom to calm down and Gardenhire followed her, even though she told him if he came in she would cut him.
Comer pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of fourth degree assault in March and was sentenced to 180 days set aside on the condition she stay out of trouble for two years. She was also ordered to continue mental health treatment.
After the incident, Gardenhire sought the domestic violence protection order.
In his petition, Gardenhire wrote that he needed the order because he was trying to get custody of his child and did not want any problems with Comer.
“She already stabbed me before and I did nothing. I can’t let anything else happen again. There is no telling what she would do to me during the process of me getting custody of my son.”
A judge agreed to the order March 4 and it was to remain in effect until March 2012.
Despite the order, Gardenhire and Comer often talked on the phone, Comer’s mother said.
“He just wouldn’t leave her alone,” said Owens, who said she forbid Gardenhire to come to the home she shared with her daughter. Owens thinks that Monday night Gardenhire noticed that her car wasn’t there.
Owens had gone to pick up her 15-year-old daughter from school. She called the house and a police officer answered.
In Gardenhire’s 911 call, he tells dispatcher the pair was arguing and that Comer jumped onto his car.
“She was jumping on my car and I was pulling off,” he said.
The dispatcher then asked for his last name.
“My name is Gardenhire, Clifford Gardenhire. I’m not going no where, I’m right here.”
The dispatcher asks if she’s breathing.
“I think she’s gone, man,” he replied.
“And she’s not moving?” the dispatcher asks.
“No, that’s why I already know,” he said. “Man, I didn’t mean for this to happen, man.”
Comer’s mother said she doesn’t believe Gardenhire’s claim that hitting Comer was an accident.
“You don’t run somebody over and get stuck up under the car and it’s an accident,” Owens said.
Monday afternoon Comer’s younger sister was going through pictures of her sister while the family gathered in the living room of the Plymouth Lane home.
Comer, a 2005 graduate of Holmes High School, was a student at Gateway Community and Technical College studying cosmetology, her mother said.
“She had just braided her son’s hair,” Owens said.
“She was just special,” said Comer’s father, George Pleasant. Pleasant described Comer as a “Daddy’s girl.”
“She was wonderful,” he said. “She got along with everybody, she would give you her last, she was very giving.”
Reporter Jim Hannah of The Enquirer contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment