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Oct 9, 2006 5:47 pm US/Eastern
Horse Killed By Taxi; Young Teen Rider Critical
QUEENS (AP) ―
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A startled horse being ridden by a teenage boy darted across a park, leaped into a busy roadway and crashed into a taxi, throwing the boy to the ground. The horse died, and the boy was critically injured, police said.
CBS
A 13-year-old boy who was thrown from a horse after it ran into a roadway and tried to jump over a taxi remained hospitalized in critical condition Monday.
Javid Johnson, who suffered severe head injuries and a broken leg when he was hurled to the ground in the Sunday accident, was being treated at a hospital in Queens.
The horse suffered massive injuries and died at the scene, a grassy area in the Ozone Park section near John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Javid's friend and fellow rider Marquise Jemmott, 12, said the horse, Romeo, "reared up and took off" and leaped onto the taxi.
"The horse flipped," he said, making whirling motions with his hands, "and the kid flew into the street, and the horse was sitting in the street bleeding."
The horse's owner, Julius Stanton, said he was riding with the two boys when something alarmed it.
The horse, which weighed about 1,500 pounds, was from a stable run by the Federation of Black Cowboys, a club of horse enthusiasts who introduce inner-city children to horses and teach them about the black influence in the Old West.
Javid's mother said she doesn't want her son, a federation member who has been riding since he was 5, to ride again.
The boy's horse landed on the taxi's roof, slicing its belly open on the off-duty sign, and broke the windshield as it rolled onto the hood before landing on the ground.
There were no passengers in the taxi; the driver was taken to a hospital for treatment of trauma and hand injuries.
Police said no traffic laws were broken and no charges were filed.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
