In East St. Louis, motorists drove around a dying boy instead of stopping to help
It was just after sunset Wednesday in East St. Louis. Fog crept across the city. A light rain fell on the intersection of State Street and Post Place.
Maurice Richards lived a few doors down. The 11-year-old likely had crossed this intersection on many occasions.
But this time, as the boy made his way across the roadway, a car suddenly slammed into him.
Instead of stopping to help, however, the car kept on driving, according to police.
Perhaps worse, other drivers followed the lead, weaving around the boy as he lay on the ground, dying.
It was “several minutes” before anyone stopped to help Richards, reported local television station KMOV.
By then, it was too late.
Richards died at a hospital shortly thereafter.
Authorities called the hit-and-run a “senseless act,” but also called out the drivers who ignored the dying boy.
“Just for the fact that they’re seeing someone lying in the street and didn’t render aid … they need to be held accountable,” East St. Louis Police Det. Jason Hicks told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We as citizens of East St. Louis need to start taking a more serious role in things that go on.”
“If you were one of the ones that saw the young man laying in the street and went around him, you know it’s not right,” Hicks added, according to KMOV.
Richards’s grandmother said they weren’t sure how long the boy lay in the street before someone finally stopped, but that it was long enough that 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,” Gertrude Richards told the Post-Dispatch. “I guess they just drove by. They had to stop another car from almost hitting him.”
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