Child struck and killed by car in Brooklyn

A 5-year-old was fatally struck as he crossed a street in front of his Brooklyn home Sunday night, cops and witnesses said.

Rashard Charles was with his mother when a tan Honda Odyssey minivan that was backing up on Empire Boulevard near Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights hit the boy and knocked him to the ground around 8:30 p.m., cops said.

“I heard [the mother] screaming and crying. I went up to her and she said, ‘some lady just ran over my kid,” said Barry Thomas, the superintendent of the apartment building where the family lives. “He was breathing, but he wasn’t responding.”

The boy was rushed to Kings County Hospital where he later died, authorities said.

The driver of the vehicle, Elizabeth Mayard, 23, took off after hitting the boy and blew three red lights, cops said. She later returned to the scene after a witness chased her down, cops said.

[The driver] was very emotional, she was apologizing,” Thomas said. “She said she didn’t know she had hit the kid.”

Mayard was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, reckless driving, and traffic device violation.