Tristin Goods, a Black father in New York, had his entire world flipped upside down when he was stopped by a New York trooper last December 22 for speeding on an Ulster County highway. According to the NY Daily News, the trooper started screaming at him and ended up pepper-spraying him and his two preteen daughters, Monica and Tristina Goods, along with his wife April Goods, inside their family SUV.
Fearing for his and his family’s lives, Tristin drove off and found the officer chasing him. After ramming the SUV twice, the vehicle crashed and ended up tragically killing 11-year-old Monica in the process.
On the way to visit relatives during the holiday season, Tristin told the NY Daily News that he was stopped by a New York trooper later identified as Christopher Baldner who immediately began to berate him, saying, “He was screaming at me, ‘You were going 100 miles per hour, and you shook my car!’”
Unbelievably tragic and enraging. https://t.co/ABdJQYikQT
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) June 21, 2021
An argument ensued where the trooper allegedly asked if there were guns or drugs in the car. Baldner then returned to his police cruiser before coming back, without warning, and allegedly “flooded” the entire vehicle with pepper spray, the NY Daily News reported, of which two children were present.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do next. I was like, ‘Holy s**t. This guy is going to kill me now,’” Tristin, 39, told NY Daily News about the moment he drove off and fearing for his family’s lives.
Following the SUV in a car chase, Baldner rammed the vehicle. According to the NY Daily News, less than 10 seconds later, he rammed it again, causing it to flip, roll, and crash. 11-year-old Monica died at the scene after being ejected from the SUV.
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Tristin told the NY Daily News that he attempted to search for his missing daughter but was met with Baldner, who had his gun drawn. Despite the traumatic incident, Tristin was handcuffed and placed in the backseat of a police cruiser as his baby girl’s lifeless body was taken away in a bag.
Verifying Tristin’s account, his lawyer Joseph O’Connor told the NY Daily News, “We are confident that our clients’ accounts of what happened are consistent with the scientific evidence and the forensic evidence from the scene,” adding that “this should have been a traffic ticket” instead of a murder scene.
Baldner has since been assigned to “desk duty,” according to the NY Daily News, and is currently involved in a criminal investigation for his role in last December’s fatal event.
