RICHMOND, Va. -- A woman is asking for an apology after she said a Richmond school bus struck and killed her dog earlier this week.
"I picked him up and I was holding him," Cierra Green said. "And I tried to get him to wake up -- and he couldn't wake up."
Green is reeling from the overwhelming grief of losing her 10-year-old dog, JoJo, Monday morning in South Richmond.
"It was 8 o'clock in the morning. We just let him out to use the bathroom," Green explained.
Cierra Green and WTVR reporter Sandra Jones
Neighbor Faye Jones was watching from her front porch when she saw the accident.
"Yeah, I felt some type of way because it could've been a child," Jones said.
While helping to jumpstart her grandmother's SUV, Green said she saw a Richmond school bus coming down the street.
She called out to JoJo, but it was too late.
"My daughter she had to see her dog die right before she went to school," Green said.
JoJo
Green said a man in another car saw the bus driver hit her dog, but he kept going.
"My son. He wants to know why God hasn't sent him back yet?" said Green. "Why God didn't fix it yet?"
A Richmond Public Schools spokesperson said the transportation department conducted an investigation. That and that video from the bus' dash-cam as well as GPS data do not support Green's claims.
Additionally, both the driver and bus monitor stated that they did not see a dog near the bus nor did they hit one.
School leaders said if a bus hits an animal, the policy calls for bus drivers to stop, get out and access the scene and then call a transportation supervisor to manage the situation.
Cierra Green
As for Green, she's seeking closure.
"We don't want money. We don't want to pay for another dog," Greene said. "We just want simply an apology, acknowledgement of what happened."
Green said she has now bought another dog, a Jack Russell terrier she named Biscuit.
