THE LOCAL DISTRICT Attorney’s office is to lead a criminal investigation into the Berkeley balcony collapse as police also reversed an earlier decision not to investigate.
San Jose Mercury News reports that the City of Berkeley completed its probe and that the District Attorney would now be taking over.
“In light of Berkeley’s statement Tuesday afternoon that it had concluded its investigation, this office will now be the lead agency in this investigation,” the District Attorney’s Office said in an email.
The preliminary report by the City of Berkeley released yesterday concluded that balcony beams had been badly rotted by water damage. Six Irish students were killed when the fourth-floor balcony collapsed and seven others were seriously injured.
After the release of yesterday’s preliminary report, police had said that they would not be engaging in any investigations. That has now changed according to the San Jose Mercury News.
“The DA’s office contacted us late Tuesday,” a police spokesperson Matthai Chakko said Wednesday in an email yesterday. “We will be working with them. … Since the investigation is ongoing, we don’t have further comment.”
Now that the District Attorney’s office has launched a formal investigation, the office could ultimately have the power to organise a grand jury investigation into the incident if deemed appropriate.
Speaking yesterday at the funeral of his son Niccolai, John Schuster told the investigators of the balcony collapse to “leave no stone unturned” in getting to the bottom of the tragedy.
The final Irish funeral of the tragedy is due to take place today as mass takes place for Lorcán Miller in Rathmichael Parish Church in Shankill.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports that the second of the seven students injured in the fall has now been released from hospital. Conor Flynn from Mount Merrion in Dublin was released from hospital after treatment for a punctured lung.
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