Jun 12, 2009 6:00 pm US/Eastern
Community Mourns 4 Killed In Feltonville Crash
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
-
-
Gina Marie Rosario, 7
CBS
-
-
Remedy Smith, 11-months-old
CBS
For two families in Philadelphia's Feltonville neighborhood, the grief is unbearable.
Between them, the families lost three young children, including a toddler just shy of her first birthday, and her 22-year-old mother.
Hundreds of neighbors gathered for a vigil Thursday evening to comfort one another and remember the victims.
The four victims were together on the sidewalk Wednesday evening – the three children playing – when they were run over by a car that careened off North 3rd Street. The driver of the car was speeding from the scene of a motorcycle robbery just a few blocks away.
"They didn't even get to live life. They were babies," said Porscha Canada.
She was a relative of three of the victims: Latoya Smith, 22, was her sister. She was an aunt to Latoya's 11-month-old daughter Remedy and 6-year-old Aaliyah Griffin, both of whom were also killed.
"I just want to see my nieces again and my sister," she sobbed.
"Latoya was a young mother, struggling like most do, but she loved her children," said Ted Canada, Latoya's father and a grandfather of Remedy and Aaliyah.
Canada is familiar with horrific loss. He already lost a granddaughter, who darted out in front of a car two years ago. And in 2005, one of his sons was gunned down in West Philadelphia.
"All we can do is pray," he said.
The fourth victim of the accident is Gina Marie Rosario, 7. Her mother Tony saw the car speed out of control and run over her daughter.
"She was trying to pick up the car, to get the baby out. Then my son came out, and they were both trying," said Rosario's Uncle Angelo Betancourt. "But the baby was dead. [She] never had a chance."
"It should have been me," screamed Sandra Perez, Rosario's grandmother. "She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve it."
A memorial to the three victims steadily grew throughout the day Thursday as dozens of people, many who did not even know the victims, came to pay their respects.
With four victims, three of them under the age of 10, the accident was among the most tragic in the city's recent history.
"My daughter lost everything," said Perez. "She was a happy little girl. That girl didn't have no fault."
A second vigil is scheduled at the scene of the fatal crash Friday evening.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Openly Gay Celebrities
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments