PEABODY, MASS. (WHDH) - A group of Peabody residents said they’re devastated after a driver barreled a gaggle of geese on a local street in an incident caught on camera this week.
“No braking, no pause, nothing, just run right over them,” said James Gemma on Wednesday.
Gemma is the person heard screaming for the driver to stop in a video of the incident. He told 7NEWS the person behind the wheel “hit those geese at full speed and kept going.”
“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Gemma shared a separate video showing geese in his yard Tuesday morning. Moments later, he said the set of parents and their goslings started to cross the nearby Winona Street.
Gemma said he heard the car and then its impact. He initially chased after the car, but said it did not stop. A matter of days after the incident, he shared a message for the driver.
“I want this person to step up and say ‘Yeah, I screwed up. It’s on me,’” he said.
Gemma said three of the goslings were killed and Peabody police were called. Now, he said, police are investigating.
“We treat these geese like they’re ours,” Gemma said. “Summer routine for us is to come out here, babysit, cross guard. The ladies have got names for these geese every year.”
Gemma and other neighbors buried the baby geese near an local pond after the crash.
As for the other geese, he said he hasn’t seen or heard them since.
“Part of me is like ‘OK, they’re smart enough to get out of here,’ which I’m happy about,” he said. “But on the other side of the coin, it’s like, I kind of miss having them around.”
In addition to tracking down the driver in this incident, neighbors told 7NEWS they would like to see changes along Winona Street to try to get drivers to slow down.
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