Parents’ anguish as autistic son, 4, dies after being hit by a car following brother’s funeral
>
‘I lost two kids’: Parents’ anguish as autistic son, 4, dies after being hit by a car when he ran into the road as the family returned from his older brother’s funeral
- Domantea McDonald, who suffered from autism, ran into road Saturday evening
- He was hit by an SUV and suffered ‘severe head trauma and internal injuries’
- Dad said he was alive for minutes after impact and tried to crawl to his mother
- Little boy was killed on the same day his eighteen year old brother was buried
- Father of both kids said: ‘There is nothing inside me. There’s nothing. I’m empty’
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
A four-year-old boy has died after being run over by a car in New York City, moments after he returned from his older brother’s funeral in the second cruel blow for the family in as many weeks.
Domantea McDonald, who suffered from autism, was standing outside his uncle’s house on 147th Street in Jamaica, Queens around 6pm on Saturday evening when he suddenly ran off the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic.
The little boy was only in the road for a moment but was hit by a Toyota RAV4 SUV a split second before his mother – who sustained an injury to her foot – could pull him out of harm’s way.
Heartbroken family members said Domantea was not killed instantly despite the huge impact and tried to crawl towards his mother, screaming out for her.
But the stricken boy quickly lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre.
Domantea’s mourning father Michael said he was numb after both of his sons were tragically taken from him in the space of two weeks.
‘There’s nothing inside me. There’s nothing. I’m empty,’ Michael confessed after hearing his four-year-old boy had died just hours after 18-year-old Tysheem – the victim of a shooting a fortnight prior – was laid to rest.
‘I just came from burying my [older] son. [Domantea] was only here for a split second to see me. He wasn’t supposed to leave the world like that,’ he told the New York Post.
Domantea McDonald, who suffered from autism, was standing outside his uncle’s house on 147th Street in Jamaica, Queens, before suddenly running off the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic (Domantea pictured with his mother)
Domantea was still conscious in the immediate aftermath of the accident, and Michael rushed into the road to hold him still and prevent him from causing himself further injury as they waited for emergency services.
When first responders from the FDNY arrived on the scene minutes later, they told the dad to step away from his child while they checked over his battered body.
But when one of the first responders turned him to the side to check the other side of his body, Domantea spotted his mother and tried to crawl towards her.
Michael alleged the emergency services allowed his son to crawl a few feet, despite telling him minutes earlier to step away, and claimed that Domantea’s life could’ve been saved if FDNY responders had kept him still before transporting him to hospital.
‘He didn’t die in no hospital. He died right here,’ Michael said.
‘I watched him leave his body right here because they let him crawl.’
Cops however said the boy sustained ‘severe head trauma and internal injuries’ in the accident.
FDNY meanwhile said ‘life saving operations began as we transported the patient to hospital’, but have not yet commented on Michael’s claims.
Domantea was hit by an SUV on 147th Street in Jamaica, Queens
The driver of the Toyota RAV4 immediately pulled up and waited at the scene until authorities arrived.
He was not charged.
‘Two in one month, it hurts,’ said the dead brothers’ uncle, Maurice McDonald.
‘We had just come back from mourning one, and the other one died.’
Michael’s next door neighbour meanwhile told the New York Post: ‘Summer 2022, this was the summer a man lost two of his sons.
‘That’s something he’ll take to his grave.’