A seven year old Vryheid’s Lust boy died yesterday at Beterverwagting (BV), East Coast Demerara, where he was hit by a speeding car.
Ezekiel Harris, of Lot 250 South Vryheid’s Lust, Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital around 1pm.
In a statement, police said that the driver of a car, bearing license PHH 8344, was proceeding along the roadway when it is alleged that Harris attempted to cross the road from behind a parked truck, and he was struck down.
The driver is said to be in police custody at the BV Police Station.
At the boy’s home, his mother Melinda Harris, who said that her son went to the Masjid at BV to collect beef being offered in observation of Eid Ul Adha. “This morning he wake up, dress and say he going to the Masjid for beef… I beat he and mek he tek off his clothes and send he to wash wares. Next thing I turn my back and hear he gone and catch bus and gone to the Masjid with his cousins,” the inconsolable woman said.
Harris said that a few minutes before 1pm, her young nephew, with whom her son left the house, brought the message that the boy was struck down and killed. “I hear he get knock down and dead,” she said, wailing loudly.
According to the child who witnessed the ordeal, his cousin left them and ran over the road to collect money from a male relative and as he was making his way back over the road, a blue taxi struck him down.
“He go to collect the money from my stepfather and the car come with full speed and by time he go for come over back de car mek blam and pitch he away. All he shoes fly off,” the child told this newspaper. He stated that by the time he made his way to where his cousin was flung, others had rushed to him and he was in an unconscious state.
The boy said his stepfather, from whom Ezekiel had collected the money, picked the child up and placed him in the same taxi to take him to the Georgetown Public Hospital. “Like the car was going to drive way and all. Is the woman in the taxi mek he stop… he didn’t even had his license in the car. He had to stop at his house in BV by Fibre Tech to pick up the license,” the youngster relayed.
At the hospital, a female relative, Roxanne Moses, said she identified the boy. According to her, his left side ribcage area was badly bruised along with his head which was also said to be swollen.
She said she was told the doctor was on lunch at the time and could not speak with her but according to the nurses she met with, the boy appeared to have been dead before he arrived at the hospital.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be conducted on the body of the child on Monday. He is survived by his parents and six siblings.
