Google apologized Monday to a father in California after he discovered a satellite view on Google Maps that showed the lifeless body of his 14-year-old son.
Jose Barrera’s son, Kevin, was shot and killed on Aug. 14, 2009, on the railroad tracks near North Richmond and San Pablo, Calif., and the image remains on Google Maps for the world to see, NBC Los Angeles reported.
“We were really close,” Mr. Barrera said. “So to see his body, those images, that hurt me a lot.”
Google Maps Vice President Brian McClendon called the distraught father on Monday to apologize.
“Our hearts go out to the family of this young boy,” he said in a statement to NBC. “Since the media first contacted us about the image, we’ve been looking at different technical solutions. Google has never accelerated the replacement of updated satellite imagery from our maps before, but given the circumstances we wanted to make an exception in this case. We believe we can update this in eight days, and we’ve spoken to the family to let them know we’re working hard on the update.”
He said it will take eight days to fix the problem because the company wants to “uphold the highest quality imagery,” NBC reported.
Mr. Barrera said he hopes the new publicity can lead to catching his son’s killers, who remain at large.
“I’m feeling like it could help me to put more pressure on the police department,” he told NBC.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.