(Jennifer L. Gonzeles)
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The school crossing guard who played hooky while a young boy was killed by a tractor-trailer lied to her supervisor that morning — claiming she was helping children traverse the busy intersection when she was really sitting at home, cops said yesterday.
Flavia Roman, 55, didn’t go outside until about 8 a.m. Thursday, after Amar Diarrassouba was fatally struck in the crosswalk at First Avenue and East 117th Street at 7:54 a.m., police sources said.
Roman’s neighbor Pedro Bracero, 49, said Roman seemed completely clueless when she finally emerged from her building just down the block from the scene.
“She asked me, ‘What happened?’ ” Bracero said. “And I told her a boy was hit by a truck and probably he’s not going to make it.
“She said, ‘Oh, my God!’ ” and ran to the scene.
Roman, in uniform, told cops she was merely on a bathroom break. At the police station house she repeated the same lie to reps from the Manhattan DA’s Office, which is weighing whether to criminally charge her.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Roman checked in by phone with her 25th Precinct supervisor at about 7:30 a.m. and assured the youth officer that she was on duty.
“She phoned in, as is the practice of safety crossing guards, to report that she was on post,” said Kelly’s spokesman, Paul Browne. “She was not on post, and for that reason she was suspended.”
She also wrote in her memo book that she had started her shift on time, sources said.
Roman will be on unpaid leave for 30 days while the circumstances surrounding Amar’s death is investigated.
Cops are interviewing Roman’s relatives and the superintendent of her building to determine her usual work routine.
Many parents said Roman is routinely absent from the busy intersection, where trucks, buses and cars speed by as hundreds of kids approach the school.
“If it’s determined that she was not where she should have been, the least should be that she get fired,” said state Sen. José Serrano, whose district encompasses East Harlem. “And the district attorney should look at other [criminal-charge] options as well.”
Eustace Bennett, 51, whose son uses the crosswalk where Amar was killed, said, “I think she should be fired. If she was supposed to be on duty and wasn’t on duty, then at least she should lose her job.”
Cries for a pink slip echoed across the neighborhood, including outraged members of the law-enforcement community.
“The Police Department should fire her ass!” said a source. “That’s so bad . . . the kid was walking to school near where this crossing guard was supposed to be and got killed by a tractor-trailer.
“That’s what you’re there for — to protect these school children! Just can her on the spot. It would not have happened if she had been there.”
Neighborhood mom Tatiana Smith, 21, said that if Roman had notified her superiors that she wasn’t at her post — and been replaced by another guard — Amar “would still be alive.”
The truck driver, Robert Carroll, told cops he didn’t see Amar when he turned right with a green light from East 117th Street. He was issued summonses for failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.
Cops took no chances yesterday, staffing the crossing with two uniformed officers and a supervisor.
Sidiki Diarrassouba, Amar’s grief-stricken dad, refused to blame Roman for his son’s death.
“She loved” Amar and his 9-year-old brother Youssouf, who was with Amar during the accident, he said.
“Even if she wasn’t there, it was my son’s last day. Something else would happen,” said Diarrassouba, a devout Muslim. “She loved them. My religion, Allah, gave him to me and he is taking him back.”
Family imam Komate Souleimane, 57 — Amar’s uncle — was sickened by Roman’s alleged lie about being at the crosswalk.
“If that’s true, that’s wrong. You don’t call in and then put a little kid’s life in danger by lying,” he said. “My nephew paid the price.
“Accident or no accident, when your time comes, you have to leave, you have to go. When the accident happens, God knows how, and God knows why.”
He said the family is awaiting the outcome of the investigation.
“I don’t want to rush any judgment until the police come to me with the report,” he said.
Though Roman is under Manhattan DA investigation, former prosecutor Jason Berland — now a defense lawyer — said that at most, she likely would face a misdemeanor charge such as endangering the welfare of a child for “failing to be at your intersection when you say you are.”
Roman’s lawyer, Kevin Faga, said, “She feels terrible. She knew the child. She really liked the child. I’m not gonna comment on the facts of the case. It will all go how it goes,” Faga said.
“Her sympathies and condolences go out to the family. It’s a horrible tragedy.
“She’s a woman. She’s a mother. I saw a woman . . . who has been crying for two days. She feels for the family and sends her deepest sympathies and condolences.
“It was a tragic accident. She’s got five kids herself. She’s a nice lady. This is a tragic loss of a young child,” said Faga, calling the criticism is “unfair.”
“Nobody in the world wants this to happen. Nobody wants to see a neighborhood kid get hurt,” he said. “I believe her granddaughter was quoted as saying, she wasn’t the one driving the truck.”
Local mom Tina Glick, 56, wasn’t buying Roman’s excuses.
“She lied, she cheated and she cost a little boy his life,” Glick said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Services for tragic kid
Young Harlem truck victim Amar Diarrassouba will be laid to rest tomorrow following a funeral service at 9 a.m.
The service will be held at Amasjid Husa Mosque, 2136 Eighth Ave., and the victim will be buried at UnionProspect Cemetery in Aberdeen, NJ.
Arrangements are being handled by the Islamic International Funeral Home in Brooklyn.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli, Larry Celona, Josh Saul and Frank Rosario