A 13-year-old girl allegedly let a 3-year-old boy out of his mother’s SUV before locking herself in the vehicle and backing over him last week.
The girl was a friend of the family and on a shopping trip with 3-year-old William, his mother and his 8-year-old brother before the death occurred, the Portland Press Herald reported.
The boy’s maternal grandmother, Monica Kennie, told the Portland newspaper that the family had just arrived home so her daughter, Virginia Tinkham, could drop off jiu-jitsu supplies and left the children in the running SUV.
The unsupervised 13-year-old opened the back door of the vehicle and let William out, and then jumped into the driver’s seat, according to the Press Herald.
Kennie, who was not present for the death, recounted how stricken her daughter was when she returned outside to see the 13-year-old behind the wheel.
“My daughter was pounding on the window,” Kennie told the Press Herald. “It happened so fast. [She] was screaming for her to get out of the vehicle.”
The girl, who was locked in the vehicle, reversed it over William, while his mother pounded on the window.
The boy’s father, Guy Tinkham, arrived home just as it happened, according to the newspaper.
The boy died at the scene.
There has not been a decision on whether police will charge the 13-year-old, but Kennie told the Press Herald that she hopes that the girl faces consequences. The death remains under investigation and blood and alcohol tests are pending.