The Associated Press
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A woman died of injuries suffered when she fell while trying to pet a police officer’s horse outside a shopping mall.
Authorities hadn’t determined whether Susan Banker’s injuries were caused by striking the ground or being trampled.
Police said they interviewed at least four people and were given different accounts of what happened. “It’s inconclusive whether the horse did step on her or not,” Monroe County Sheriff’s Cpl. John Helfer said.
Banker, 51, who walked with a cane, got permission from a member of the Monroe County sheriff’s mounted unit to pet his horse Saturday at a mall in suburban Henrietta, said her sister, Pamela.
Banker reached out to touch the horse but it pulled away and she lost her balance and fell underneath the animal, her sister said. “It stepped on her several times,” Pamela Banker, 46, said in a telephone interview Monday.
Banker was pronounced dead about an hour later.
The mounted patrol horses are trained to remain calm and are “usually pretty docile, really good around people,” Helfer said.