MILLCREEK, Utah — A grieving mother is looking for answers after her daughter was run over by a police vehicle in a parking lot.
23-year-old Cindreia Simone Europe died on March 5. At the time, investigators said an officer with Unified Police inadvertently ran over her body while conducting a welfare check. It is unclear if she was killed by the police vehicle.
Few details have been released since the incident. The wait is agonizing for Cindreia’s mother, LaToya Mack.
“I was never prepared quite for this,” Mack said. “No one should ever have to write an obituary for their baby.”
The loss of her only child has been difficult to process and understand.
“She was raised for greatness. She was a national merit scholar,” Mack said.
Sources told FOX 13 the officer involved in the incident had a long history of incidents in her patrol car while working for the West Valley City Police Department. A public records request uncovered at least seven, at-fault accidents over an 8-year period.
After resigning from that department late in 2017, she was hired by Unified Police a few months later.
“There is just no way this should have happened,” Mack said. “I know it was absolutely avoidable and unnecessary. A welfare check and she’s dead — from a welfare check.”
Because the officer has not been charged with a crime, FOX 13 is not identifying her.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera declined to confirm the officer’s identity or alleged past incidents.
“I’ve explained over and over why I can’t talk about that,” Rivera said. “All the information will be provided after the investigation.”
The Salt Lake City Police Department is the outside agency conducting the investigation. There is no timetable as to when it will be complete.
Mack is now left with memories of her daughter, who moved out in late 2017, to forge her own path in life.
“I did not know I would not talk to her again – she just needed some time,” Mack said.
She knows that no matter what answers she receives, nothing will bring Cindreia back. She has a hard time believing the initial reports that her daughter was lying on the parking lot pavement.
“Let’s just say she had been. Still, no reason to die like a dog in the street,” Mack said. “I will feel better knowing what happened and holding people accountable. That will make me feel a lot better.”
But nothing will take away the pain of losing a child and wondering what great things her daughter Cindreia could have achieved.
“What’s the hardest, is the loss of hope,” Mack said.
