One grieving family in Los Angeles is demanding answers after a 7-year-old boy was fatally run over by an ice-cream truck Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Jamarion Thomas of South L.A. was run over a little after 7 p.m., and the incident incited an angry crowd who went after the driver, throwing bricks and allegedly brandishing a knife, Sgt. Timothy Colson of the Los Angeles Police Department told NBC Los Angeles.
The driver sustained bruises and later had to be taken to the police station for his own safety.
Colson told NBC that they believe Jamarion was riding an electronic bicycle next to the ice-cream truck, possibly holding on to it, when he may have slipped and fallen, and the rear wheels of the truck rolled over him.
“I don’t know what I’m going to tell my brother. His son is dead,” Michael Harris, Jamarion’s uncle, said. “They say it was an accident, but I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that one bit, none at all.”
Jamarion’s grandmother Lanora Satterwhite insisted that the boy was not riding but instead was walking by the motorized bicycle because it did not work.
“When I got to the door, everyone was saying he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead,” Satterwhite told KTLA. “When I made it to my second gate, ladies grabbed me and said ‘Mama, no he’s sleeping.’ I knew what was wrong then.”
Charges are reportedly not expected to be filed against the driver, according to KTLA.