Boston Pays $5.1M to Dead Sox Fan's Family

Associated Press | May 3 2005

Comment: Criminal charges should follow immediately.

FLASHBACK: Red Sox Fan Death Underlines Distorted Mentality of Both Police and Public

BOSTON -- Victoria Snelgrove wanted it all: To be a successful broadcast journalist and to meet her "Prince Charming" and start a family.

"I'm still young. I still have time," she said on a videotape she recorded in her bedroom.

Less than a year later, those hopes were cut short when Snelgrove was killed by police trying to subdue rioters after the Boston Red Sox won the American League pennant last fall.

On Monday, the city paid a $5.1 million settlement to Snelgrove's parents. It is believed to be the largest settlement in the city's history.

Snelgrove, an Emerson College senior from East Bridgewater, was hit in the eye socket with a pepper-spray pellet fired by a police officer outside Fenway Park on Oct. 21 after Boston eliminated the New York Yankees.

"I can't even imagine the pain the Snelgrove family has felt and will continue to feel," Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole said. "There is no amount of money that can relieve that pain, I'm sure."

Snelgrove's parents, Richard and Dianne Snelgrove, and her brother, Michael, spoke at length about her death on a DVD their attorney gave to reporters Monday.

"She was the light of our life," her mother said. "When she died, the light went out."

Richard Snelgrove recalled witnessing the last 12 hours of his daughter's life, after she lapsed into a coma. The family kept a bedside vigil in the hospital and watched her slowly "fade away," he said.

"I would hold her hand and there was just no movement," he said. "We stayed there until the last few moments. It was absolutely the most horrific time of our life."

Shortly after his daughter died, Richard Snelgrove discovered the videotape she recorded, apparently for a class project. Sitting on her bed, Victoria Snelgrove recalls feeling that she lived in a "bubble" until an aunt died after a short battle with brain cancer.

"Our lives were so good and we haven't been in touch with any tragedy or anything," she said. "That's one of my hugest fears -- that in a second my life or somebody close to me's life could just be taken away."

The DVD ends with a montage of family photos, including one her best friend Kaitlyn Sachetta snapped just minutes before Snelgrove's death.

"It just kind of shows what a great time we were having and how happy she was that the Red Sox had finally won and beat the Yankees," Sachetta said on the DVD.

Another friend, Kristen Daniels, said Snelgrove dreamed of appearing as an anchor on the "E!" entertainment television network and was looking forward to spending a semester in Los Angeles.

"Torie always knew what she wanted in life," Daniels said. "She had her goals set. She was going to achieve it."

Richard Snelgrove said he will cherish the memory of their morning routine, when he would kiss his daughter on her forehead before he headed off to work. "It was such a little thing, but I will miss it," he said, his voice wavering.

On Monday, O'Toole said Snelgrove was an innocent bystander and had not "engaged in any activity that would have led police to think that she was behaving unlawfully."

Patrick Jones, the Snelgrove's family lawyer, said that acknowledgment was the most important aspect of the settlement to her family.

Besides the Boston Police Department's internal review, two independent investigations are under way. The police commissioner also named a special outside panel to look into the shooting and police policies.

Prosecutors are looking into whether criminal charges are warranted against the officers who fired the pepper pellet weapons. O'Toole said investigators also are trying to determine if the weapon malfunctioned.

Two other people were injured when they were hit in the face by the pellets, which are fired from compressed-air weapons. A deputy superintendent who was in charge of operations around Fenway Park that night and fired one of the weapons, announced his retirement from the force Monday.