Police charged the driver who backed over and killed a 5-year-old boy in Brooklyn Sunday night, cops said.
Rashard Charles, known as ‘Rooshy’, was returning home with his mother, Rochelle, 27, and his 9-month-old brother, Reece, when a tan Honda Odyssey minivan backed up on Empire Boulevard near Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights around 8:30 p.m. and knocked the boy to the ground, cops said.
The little boy who loved Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers was struck by the rear wheels while his mother smacked the back of the car screaming “stop, stop!,” witnesses said.
The driver of the vehicle, Elizabeth Mayard, 23, reversed a second time and then took off – blowing three red lights before witnesses chased her down. She later returned to the scene, cops and witnesses said.
“If someone didn’t stop her she would not have come back,” said Rochelle. “I kept telling her to stop. I banged. I banged. I banged.”
The driver told investigators she didn’t know she hit the little boy when she returned to the scene, cops said.
“Everyone was hysterical and up in her face. The driver thought she was going to jail,” said a neighbor Virginia Woolard.
“She said I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to,” Rochelle recalled.
Roshard was lying unconscious on the pavement in a little brown coat, a scarf, and a hat when EMS arrived.
He was rushed to Kings County Hospital where he died shortly after, authorities said.
“I want [the driver] to go to jail. That’s my son, I love him so much,” Rochelle said.
“I take really good care of him. I take him everywhere I go.”
Mayard is charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, reckless driving, and traffic device violation.