New York State trooper charged with murder after ramming family's car, killing 11-year-old girl
CBSN
A New York State trooper has been charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of 11-year-old Monica Goods, Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday. Christopher Baldner is accused of ramming a car with four members of the Goods family inside, flipping the car and killing Monica while on duty in December 2020.
The attorney general's office said Baldner was in his police car when he stopped Tristan Goods for speeding in Ulster County just before midnight on December 22. He was going to visit family for Christmas and had his wife and two daughters, who are 11 and 12 years old, in the car with him. During the stop, Baldner administered pepper spray into the Goods' car and Tristan Goods sped off, the indictment said.
The trooper followed the family's car, ramming into the back of their car twice before Goods' vehicle flipped multiple times. Monica Goods was ejected from the car and died, the attorney general said.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.