An investigation has been launched after a Washington, D.C., man who was fitted with a GPS tracker and was supposed to be confined to his home allegedly shot a man to death.
The suspect, Quincy Green, appeared to be at home when Dana Hamilton, 44, was killed on a D.C. sidewalk on May 14, according to Fox4 News. Green eluded police for six days.
Green had been ordered to wear a tracking device and stay in his home while awaiting trial on a gun charge laid last April. However, according to CBS News Washington, a technician from a California-based government contractor responsible for the trackers incorrectly placed the GPS device on Green’s prosthetic leg.
Cliff Keenan, director of pre-trial services at DC Superior Court described the incident to CBS as “human error. Plain and simple.”
Citing police documents, the news station reported Green allegedly removed his prosthetic leg and used a second artificial limb to leave his apartment.
The victim’s mother, Lillie Hamilton, said she was devastated that such an error could have happened.
“This is the worst that’s really happened to me all my life and I’m 72 years old,” Lillie told CBS. “Why would they put it on a prosthetic leg when it was supposed to go on the person’s real leg?”
Speaking with Fox4 News, Keenan said this error is a first for D.C.
“With this company over the last three years we have had nearly 5,000 placements of GPS devices on individuals,” Keenan said. “As of today we have about 480 people in the community with a GPS device. This is the first time the company or I have heard of … this kind of incident happening”.
The D.C. police union is also frustrated with the error.
“From what I understand the device has to be put skin to device and they sent somebody out to put this device on and it’s not touching its skin,” Russell Mullins Jr., a spokesperson of the police union told Fox4. “I guess our biggest concern is we are out there every day putting our life on the line for citizens and making sure they are safe and then someone turns around and does something like this that lets them back out.”