2-Year-Old Fatally Hit and Run Over by Car While Scootering in Apartment Complex

NEED TO KNOW

• A 2-year-old was fatally struck by a car while riding a scooter in an apartment complex in Missouri on Saturday, April 25

• Authorities responded to the incident at the Hawthorne Place Apartments at around 2:12 p.m. local time

• A 2017 Cadillac XT5 was reportedly backing out of a parking space when the crash took place

A 2-year-old child has died after being run over by a car while scootering in an apartment complex in Independence, Missouri.

On Saturday, April 25, the Independence Police Department revealed in a press release that they responded to a crash in the Hawthorne Place Apartments at around 2:12 p.m. local time.

“We are sorry to report the juvenile pedestrian succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash,” the Facebook post read.

Authorities added, “The crash happened when a 2017 Cadillac XT5 was backing out of a parking space and struck a 2-year-old juvenile pedestrian on a scooter.”

The juvenile was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, but later died.

“The crash remains under investigation, but during the initial investigation it was discovered that the Cadillac was backing out of a parking space when the juvenile entered the path of the vehicle," officials wrote.

The 2-year-old was identified as Aziel Zermeno by Fox2Now and a GoFundMe page. PEOPLE reached out to the Independence Police Department for further comment, but they did not immediately respond.

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“All he wanted to do is play outside, he loved his scooter, he loved it,” his mother Cierra McKendrick told the outlet.

The boy's scooter has been placed in a memorial outside their apartment, Fox2Now reported.

McKendrick said she had left Zermeno with his grandmother and two siblings to go to the store.

She had just returned to the apartment complex's entrance when she was informed about the crash.

Police told Fox2Now that Zermeno was on his sister's scooter when he veered from the sidewalk and into the parking lot, where a moving car was inbound.

McKendrick told the outlet that the driver “saw him going toward the street as she began to pull out and my mom tried to run and grab him and the car blocked her from getting to him first. And she hit him and she ran him over."

Neighbor Deante Melson tried to perform CPR until paramedics arrived.

“In the moment of the grandmother trying to save her grandson's life, the person who did it actually was blaming her,” Melson told Fox2Now.

A GoFundMe page set up in the wake of the incident has raised $2,285 of a $2,600 goal as of the time of publication.

Read the original article on People