A 16-month-boy was killed Monday morning when his father accidentally drove a sport utility vehicle over the toddler, D.C. police said.
The incident, caught on a security camera, happened shortly after 11 a.m. while the father, mother, child and a family friend were in the basement parking garage of the State House apartments, 2122 Massachusetts Ave. NW, said Cmdr. Andrew Solberg.
Police were not releasing the names of the family because no charges were expected to be filed, and because of the nature of the tragedy Solberg said.
The State House resident Yudi Henderson, who has known the couple for several years, said he rushed home when his wife called in tears with the news of the tragedy. The boy, whom Henderson described as “playful,” was the couple’s only child, Henderson said.
“I cannot imagine what they are going through,” he said.
The two women were loading items in a car parked behind the father’s small SUV, and they didn’t notice the child wander away from them, Solberg said. The boy wandered in front of the SUV, and the father was in the driver’s seat, Solberg said.
“The father doesn’t know that the women don’t have the baby. The father doesn’t even know the child was there,” Solberg said. The father pulled the SUV forward to leave, striking the small boy, according to police.
The child was taken to Children’s National Medical Center where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
“It’s a tough one,” Solberg said. “It’s very sad.”
