A five-year-old boy from Crown Heights, Brooklyn was struck and killed by a minivan while crossing the street on Sunday night.
New York City Police have charged 23-year-old Elizabeth Mayard with reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident, after she allegedly backed her minivan into Rashard Charles while he was crossing the street.
Rashard and his mother had just stepped out of their apartment on Empire Blvd. between Rogers and Nostrand Aves. in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights at about 8:30 p.m. The Wall Street Journal reported that the mother was holding her 7-month-old baby while she, the toddler and two other people crossed the street in the middle of the block.
According to the New York Daily News, Rashard raced out from between two parked automobiles into the street, and was hit by a tan Honda Odyssey in reverse.
The super of the building where the Charles family lived told the Daily News that he ran outside when he heard commotion in the street.
"I heard the screaming, so I came outside. I saw the little boy in the street," 52-year-old Thoman Barry said.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing the minivan zoom off as Rashard's mother hit the car's window with her fists, telling the driver to stop the car.
"'Stop, stop, you hit my son!'" Barry said the mother yelled. "She was screaming. She said some lady ran over my kid and left."
Police immediately transported the child to Kings County Hospital when they arrived at the scene and discovered him unconscious on the ground.
He was later pronounced dead at the medical facility.
The Wall Street Journal reported that an eyewitness at the site of the accident followed the Honda Odyssey in his own car and told the driver to go back to the site of the accident.
When Mayard returned, New York City Police put her under arrest. She was also charged with three traffic violations, after she ran several red lights.
