Trump meets grieving parents, springs a surprise

LONDON — In an unrelenting quest for justice after their son was killed in a car crash and the driver who is a suspect in the case fled Britain for the United States, two Britons traveled all the way to the White House this week.

There, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, the parents of Harry Dunn, 19, who was killed in the crash in August, met with President Trump on Tuesday. He had an unpleasant surprise for them, they later said.

Anne Sacoolas, 42, the wife of a U.S. diplomat and the driver involved in the crash that killed their son, was in an adjacent room, waiting to meet them. Police in England said she had fled the country while claiming immunity. Britain and the United States have been involved in a diplomatic tug of war ever since.

Trump, a former reality television star well versed in the language of staging a spectacle for the cameras, had another surprise. Members of the White House press corps were in another room.

Apparently they were waiting to record any meeting between the grieving parents and the woman they had pleaded with in teary television interviews to return to Britain to face the police and to meet them so they could get answers.

“The bombshell was dropped not soon after we walked in the room,” Charles told reporters.

But the teenager’s parents, who said they would meet Sacoolas only when she returned to Britain, rejected Trump’s offer, saying that it felt “rushed” and that it would not have gone well.

“We would still love to meet with her,” Charles said, “but it has to be on our terms and on U.K. soil.” She added, “She needs to come back and face the justice system.”

The White House and the British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Despite being caught off guard, Harry Dunn’s parents appeared sympathetic toward Trump after their meeting.

Charles said that the president was “very gracious” and “very welcoming,” and though the president did not suggest that Sacoolas would return to Britain, she said, he said he would now “push to look at this from a different angle.”

“I think he generally will look to try and resolve this in a way to help us,” Dunn told reporters.