Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEW YORK (AP) — A desperate dad told a driver who had just backed up into a fast food restaurant, "Move forward — you're on my kids!" as his son lay fatally injured, according to court documents released Friday.
Driver Kwasi Oduro, 73, did move forward, driving away and continuing even as a witness told him he'd injured the children, police said in a court complaint. Oduro was arraigned Friday night on charges of leaving the scene of the Bronx accident that killed 7-year-old Ethan Villavicencio and injured his sister and father as they went for ice cream.
Oduro's lawyer didn't immediately return a call after court. Oduro's bail was set at $10,000.
Oduro's Mercedes SUV plowed in reverse into a fried chicken restaurant around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, shattering its windows and hitting Ethan and his relatives, the complaint said.
Witnesses described patrons scrambling, running and wondering what had happened as the boy lay covered in glass and his little sister cried for their mother, who was at a doctor's appointment.
"It was a horrible moment, and I'll remember it forever," restaurant owner Shah Mohammad told WCBS-TV.
Ethan suffered a collapsed lung and died at a hospital. His father, Manny Figueroa, and 5-year-old sister, Maya Figueroa, were released after being treated for cuts and bruises.
Police, rescue workers, restaurant staffers and bystanders moved a table that had pinned Maya to the floor, witness Sheila Clark said.
After the 34-year-old father implored Oduro to move, the car drove out of the restaurant and stopped nearby, according to the complaint.
"Where are you going? You just killed those kids," witness Juan Roldan told the driver, according to the complaint.
Then Oduro drove off, until a traffic agent pulled in front of his car to stop him a couple of blocks away, the complaint said.
Candles, flowers and toys formed a memorial on the sidewalk by the crash site Friday as Ethan's mother, Natasha Villavicencio, made her way there, weeping.
His aunt, Taisha Alameda, said Ethan "gave life to everybody."
"He was everything to us," Alameda told WCBS-TV. "Everywhere he would go, he would make us laugh. He was the sun of our family. What are we going to do without him?"
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
