Boy, 9, Killed at Construction Site

Valente Torres was with father at job site

A 9-year-old boy killed in what a neighbor described as a "freak accident" at a South Side construction site is being remembered as a "good little boy" who loved soccer and Spider-Man.

Valente Torres was struck by the steel bucket of a Bobcat skid loader on Tuesday morning at the site of an excavation project on the 8000 block of South Ellis Avenue.

Police said Raul Torres, owner of Torres Construction, may have had the boy on his lap in the cab of the loader when it hit the curb, knocking the soon-to-be fourth grader out.  Neighbors, however, said the boy was playing on the sidewalk when the bucket came down.

Valente Torres was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital where he later died.  He was the youngest of four siblings.

Police Lt. Anthony Carothers called the incident a "very unfortunate accident" and said the father was "extremely distraught."

Carothers was asked why the child would have been on the job site with his father.

"Its not (unusual) I guess for a parent to have their child with them I guess to -- to be with them to show them with -- it appears to me like he was showing him what dad does," he said.

The oldest daughter of the family, Sonia Torres, said each of the family members are grieving in their own way.

"Be with the people you love, as much as possible because you never know when they're going to go," she said.

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