Authorities in Chicago have identified a 15-month-old boy who was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash Monday afternoon, and witnesses are describing the scene after the horrific tragedy occurred.
Police say that the boy was put into the backseat of an SUV outside of a restaurant in the Albany Park neighborhood on Monday afternoon, but that he got out of the vehicle and ran out into the street.
That was when the boy was struck by a passing pickup truck, which then fled the scene.
The boy was rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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The Cook County Medical Examiner identified the boy as Hermes Rios-Cardona on Monday night.
Mark Solano, a server at the restaurant, said he met the family as they ordered desserts to go.
“I served them. They were having a casual Monday lunch,” he said. “They were waiting on an order, a couple of dessert orders to go. Next thing I know, they’re grieving.”
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Solano says that a group grew outside of the restaurant and near the family’s SUV shortly after he encountered them, and he thought perhaps someone had an allergic reaction.
Instead, onlookers were frantically trying to perform CPR, trying to save the child.
“She (the mother) was crying, praying,” he said.
No suspect information has yet been released, but Solano says the tragedy really has instilled in him a desire to live life to its fullest.
“Cherish every second of my life,” he said. “Every moment that you have with every person that you know.”
