A San Francisco father says he was almost forced to relive his son's 2009 murder when he found a Google Maps image last week that appears to show the teen's dead body.
"When I see these images, it's really fresh, you know. And that bring me back to, you know, a lot of memories." (Via WBFF)
Fourteen-year-old Kevin Barrera was reportedly shot to death on a path near those railroad tracks back in August 2009. His murder remains unsolved, and police haven't established a motive or found any suspects. (Via WTSP)
So imagine Kevin's family's grief when they found the Google Maps satelite image of what appears to be several police cruisers and a small group of officers standing near his body. (Via WFXT)
"It's painful for my family because, like I say, you know, all the memories coming back." (Via KPIX)
Over the weekend Kevin's father, Jose Barrera, asked Google to take the image off its site out of respect for his son. And Monday afternoon, Google agreed to do so.
Barrera reportedly recieved an apologetic phone call from Google Maps vice president Brian McClendon Monday in which he promised to have the image removed as quickly as possible. (Via WZVN)
It's a pretty rare move for the Internet giant. Google says it has never "accelerated the replacement of update satelite imagery" in the past, but decided to make an exception in this case. The company has faced quite a few lawsuits for privacy breaches but says it hasn't encountered a situation like this before.
Barrera says he's grateful the image will be taken down, and he hopes the mistake will bring some new attention to his son's cold murder case. (Via WCPO)
Google says it will take the company about eight days to remove the image from its site.
