BOSTON — Family members are mourning the tragic death of a young boy killed in a hit-and-run crash in Boston’s Hyde Park section on Tuesday night as police continue to search for the driver who fled.
Officers responding to a report of a child struck by a vehicle in the area of 165 Wood Avenue around 9:30 p.m. found a 4-year-old boy with serious injuries, according to the Boston Police Department.
The victim, identified by family as Ivan Pierre, was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police noted that an off-duty Boston firefighter rendered first aid to the child at the scene.
Pierre’s uncle called his nephew the “life of the house”.
A family member says the four-year-old slipped out of the house, unnoticed.
“My sister got a new car,” said the child’s uncle, Heroldy Limage. “She had just gotten home and everyone was rushing out to see her new car.’
Limage said that as the adults gathered by the doorway, Ivan snuck out to see the owner of that new car — his mother.
A witness said that Pierre and his mother were walking across the street when a speeding car approached them, struck the boy, and continued on without stopping.
“Next thing, there was an impact that everyone heard outside, and it was him lying there in the street,” Limage said. “Imagine a grown-up getting hit by a car. Now put a four-year-old kid in that position.”
Wednesday night, Boston Police released new photos of the car suspected of killing Pierre.
Rakeem Kelley witnessed the incident. He had just pulled up to visit relatives on Wood Avenue.
“I just heard this loud like bang. It sounded like a car accident — two cars hitting each other,” Kelley said. “And I like jumped and when I looked up that’s when I saw the baby getting run over.”
Kelley said the vehicle was black or another dark color and was definitely not an SUV. He said the driver actually accelerated after hitting the child.
“The vehicle, we didn’t even get a chance to see it,” he said. “It looked like a blur. All I saw was the headlights and the back brake lights. I didn’t get a chance to see the license plate.”
Moments after the child was hit, Kelley, the father of two young boys, jumped out of his car to help.
“I ran over to him, trying to ask him if he’s alright,” Kelley said. “Telling him to stay with us. And I could see the baby’s not going to make it.”
The incident happened in a neighborhood of tight, cramped streets in which speeding is discouraged — there are signs everywhere indicating a 25 MPH limit — but, residents say, is a constant problem.
“I’m very frustrated,” said RC Carrington, a nearly 50-year resident of the area. “You know it shouldn’t happen, but it happened. And it’s going to keep happening.”
More than a year ago, Carrington asked then-candidate Mayor Michelle Wu, to fix the speeding problem.
“They put the yellow things up, that didn’t slow them down,” Carrington said. “I keep putting a sign up... that doesn’t slow them down. What’s it gonna take to slow them down?”
Apparently, not one family’s life-altering tragedy. From cars to vans to sizable trucks — speeding continued on Wood Avenue Wednesday.
Limage had a message for the driver of the vehicle that hit his nephew.
“Just turn yourself in,” he said. “The least you could have done is just stop and check on the kid. That was too much for you to do? Now we’re short one family member. I don’t know if he knows what that feels like but I want to tell him, he doesn’t want to know what that feels like.”
No arrests have been made at this time.
Officials are asking anyone with video surveillance in the area of Wood Avenue or anyone who may have witnessed the crash to call Boston homicide detectives at 617-343-4470.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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