Grieving Britons hit by Trump surprise
LONDON — In a 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 Donald 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 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.
“If there’s going to be a meeting like that, it should not involve a surprise, a jack-in-the-box, pop-outof-a-circus-tent meeting seven weeks after the loss,” said Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer who is a neighbor of the family and accompanied them to the White House. “For this to happen, you would want some heavy-duty therapy and you want to meet in a neutral environment.”
The teenager’s parents, who said they would only meet Sacoolas 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.
Harry Dunn, 19, was killed in August when his motorcycle collided with a car allegedly driven by Sacoolas outside a British air force base in southern England used by the U.S. military.
Trump also said Sacoolas told him that she had been driving on the wrong side of the road accidentally — something Trump said “happens in Europe” because drivers in England drive on the left side of the road instead of the right.