A Buffalo man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, and 5 years post-release supervision after admitting to killing a Falls man by intentionally driving over him “multiple times” with an SUV in the 200 block of Hyde Park Boulevard in the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2024.
The sentence was handed down by Niagara County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszek to Patrick J. Washington, III, 20, for his guilty plea to a single count of first-degree manslaughter in the death of Xavier T. Gober. He had faced a possible maximum prison term of up to 25 years in state prison.
A Niagara County grand jury originally indicted Washington on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and has been held without bail since his indictment by a Niagara County grand jury.
Falls Police patrol officers said they responded to a call of a “pedestrian struck by a vehicle” at around 2:30 a.m. Oct. 15 in the area of 287 Hyde Park Blvd., near D Street. The first officers on the scene said they found Gober, 26, of the Falls, “unresponsive” and lying in the street.
Gober was treated at the scene by Falls firefighters and EMTs, but was pronounced dead a short time later.
Witnesses reportedly told Falls Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID) detectives that Gober had been involved in a “fight with several other people.” The witnesses said that Gober had been left lying in the street as a result of the injuries he suffered during the fight.
As Gober lay in the street, the witnesses said that Washington got into an SUV and ran him over “multiple times” with the vehicle. Cell phone video of the incident, recovered by crime scene investigators, reportedly shows Washington driving over Gober, reversing his vehicle back over him and then driving over him again.
Washington was last seen driving away from the incident in a black 2009 Ford Escape with New York license plates. That vehicle was later recovered in the 3500 block of Royal Avenue.