Drivers in East Louis failed to stop and help and 11-year-old child as he lay fatally wounded in the street after being struck by a car. Local news stations are reporting that it took “several minutes” for anyone to aid Maurice Richards after he was struck; the driver that hit him also fled the scene.
In a report we saw via the Washington Post, KMOV says Richards was hit around 6:30 p.m., not far from his house. The car fled, and several other drivers detoured around his body instead of stopping, horrifying and flabbergasting local police:
Detective Jason Hicks from the East St. Louis Police Department said, “Senseless act and well, as citizens of this city, we have to do better because no one will protect it like us. So if you were one of the ones that saw the young man lying in the street and went around him, you know it’s not right.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Richards has four sisters and a brother. His grandmother, Gertrude Richards, tearfully told the paper the family has no idea how long he lay unconscious in the road:
Gertrude Richards said Maurice’s relatives didn’t know how long the boy was in the street, and said that witnesses said his clothes were “drenched” from the rain.
“They said one lady was praying over him, and she asked other people to join and they wouldn’t join,” she said. “I guess they just drove by. They had to stop another car from almost hitting him.”
Richards died an hour later at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. East St. Louis Police are seeking information about the accident, and can be reached at 618-482-6600.
Contact the author at anna.merlan@jezebel.com.
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Maurice Richards. Screenshot via KMOV