Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday expressed his “deepest sympathy” to the family of the 5-year-old girl severely injured in a crash caused by Britt Reid, but stopped short of apologizing for commuting the prison sentence of the former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach.

A spokesperson for the Republican governor responded in a written statement to a series of questions from The Star on Tuesday, including whether Head Coach Andy Reid, Britt Reid’s father, or anyone associated with the Chiefs urged him to issue the commutation.

“No request, official or otherwise, was made on behalf of Mr. Reid for this commutation,” said Parson spokesperson Johnathan Shiflett. “Contacting victims’ families is not part of the Governor’s Office’s clemency process and has not been for any of the nearly 4,000 clemency cases Governor Parson has decided on throughout his nearly six years in office.”

Parson, the statement said, “expresses his deepest sympathy for any additional heartache this commutation has caused the Young Family, as that was certainly not his intention.”

The Republican governor has faced intense criticism, including from members of his own party, after his decision Friday to commute Reid’s sentence after he was convicted of driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that severely injured 5-year-old Ariel Young. Reid had been serving a three-year prison sentence but will now remain under house arrest through October 2025.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, a Democrat, on Saturday said Parson did not contact those affected by the case, including Young’s family.

“There simply can be no response that explains away the failure to notify victims of the offender,” Baker said. “To Ariel’s family, I offered my resolve to continue to fight for just sentences for those who injure others due to the reckless decision to drink alcohol and operate a motor vehicle.”

Tom Porto, an attorney for the Young family, previously said that the family was “disgusted” by Parson’s decision.

“If you drink and drive and you put a little girl in a coma, you should have to serve the entire sentence that a judge of this state gave you,” he said.

Young was a passenger in one of two vehicles that Reid’s pickup slammed into on the side of the entrance ramp along Interstate 435.

Reid was driving 83 mph two seconds before the collision and had a serum blood alcohol content of 0.113 about two hours after the crash, prosecutors said. The legal limit is 0.08, according to Missouri law.

The Star’s Jonathan Shorman and Noelle Alviz-Gransee contributed reporting.