Iseda Jeffers-Harris was waiting for her son to come home for lunch when her phone started ringing.
On the other end, she heard the voice of her 13-year-old boy, Marquice, who sounded like he was in distress.
“He was breathing very heavy,” Jeffers-Harris recalled. “He said, ‘Mom, I need help’ … ‘I need help getting into the house.'”
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According to Vancouver-based lawyer Kyla Lee, police might have concluded the ride home given to the child was reasonable assistance.
“It’s very arguable, in those circumstances, if you see that someone is injured, they’re a child, and you treat the injury the best you can in that circumstance, and you take them home to their parents, that that is reasonable assistance,” she said.
Lee says charges can be imposed if the driver has the intention of escaping criminal or civil liability. In this case, the driver’s willingness to drive the child home could be an indication that they weren’t trying to evade the law.
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