Update: Harry Carnevale

Some people leave their house in the morning and never come back.

I didn't know Harry Carnevale or his family. I know a few people who did. In some circles, young Harry was categorized as a "Star Boy," someone with enormous potential and a great life-destiny ahead. So why are we here and he's not?

A decision young Harry made out of kindness of heart to give a struggling low-income co-worker a safe ride home from work.

A police officer who ignored orders from headquarters to break off a high speed chase. (Some argue the cop is the one who should be serving time for manslaughter, since police knew who the woman was they were chasing for a few traffic violations, and could easily have snagged her in a day or two without much ado).

And now, additional details of the shadowy case emerge:

"Seven witness statements that were potentially embarrassing to the city of Albany were withheld from the family of a 17-year-old boy who was killed by a woman fleeing police when her vehicle slammed into the teenager's car four years ago at a high rate of speed.

City attorneys said the witness statements were inadvertently withheld from the parents of Harrison "Harry" Carnevale despite court orders directing their release. The statements finally were turned over to the family early last year, but the oversight was kept quiet under a confidentiality agreement requested by the city after it paid $10,000 to offset the family's legal fees from their efforts to obtain the records." ~ Times Union

Poor Harry Carnevale. Had he not died that fateful night 4 years ago, I'll betcha he'd be blazing a trail in Hollywood right now.

"Other records in the case indicate a former police sergeant, Peter J. McKenna, issued an order to patrol officers to abandon the chase seconds after it began. McKenna apparently was adhering to new guidelines that required officers to abandon pursuits that could endanger the public.

The additional witness statements suggest some officers may have continued chasing Williams with their sirens off.

Harry Carnevale, an honors student, was on his way home to Cohoes after working at a restaurant on the south side of Albany. The fatal crash took place weeks after Carnevale had graduated a year early from Shaker High School and was making plans to attend a film-studies program at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Carnevale's vehicle was broadsided as he drove north on Henry Johnson Boulevard after dropping off a co-worker in Arbor Hill." ~ Times Union

I would like you to imagine the high-level changes in our plane of existence had Harry lived. I'm sure that like ripples in the water after one tosses a stone in a lake, Harry's accomplishments on the West Coast would have vibrated back to Albany. But we will never know.

Rich Harry Carnevale. He left his friends with a lsting, loving legaacy. A great guy who was going on to do great things.

Whenever we lose a young person we lose a piece of what could have been.





Tags: Harry Carnevale, Harry Carnevale



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.