Alarms were ringing inside a dormitory at UConn in the early morning of October 16, 2016, and as firefighter Dana Barrow began driving out of a firehouse garage, the right front tire of his Chevy Tahoe bumped into something, bringing the SUV to a sudden stop. One second passed.
And then Barrow, focused on a possible fire emergency, pressed the gas pedal, inching the 7,130-pound vehicle over the obstruction blocking his way.
That decision would come to haunt Barrow and devastate the family of Jeffny Pally, a UConn student who had fallen unconscious in front of the garage bay and suffered fatal injuries when she was crushed by Barrow's SUV.