Santa Claus parade turns grim after young girl killed
YARMOUTH, N.S. — A small Nova Scotia town has come together in grief after a little girl was killed during the annual Santa Claus parade here on Saturday.
What was supposed to be a fun Christmas celebration turned to tragedy when the four-year-old girl fell underneath a moving parade float while running alongside it during the evening procession, police said.
She was rushed to a local hospital by paramedics but was pronounced dead a short time later.
“It’s a tragedy beyond anything anyone could have imagined,” Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood, who heads the town of about 6,700 people, said on Sunday.
“Most important, I think, is the community reaching out to each other, trying to comfort each other.”
Mood said while the young girl’s family is first in her mind, she is also thinking about the first responders and the people — several of whom were children — who witnessed the accident, which happened on one of the town’s main thoroughfares.
She said a grief specialist will speak with some of the people dealing with the loss.
A witness to the incident described a scene of terror that shattered the port town’s holiday celebration.
Vance Webb said he noticed the float stop and heard screaming. He said the entire scene descended into “mayhem” as people realized what had happened.
“People within 50 feet of it — none of us are OK. All the adults were crying. Everywhere I saw, there were hundreds of people crying,” Webb said.
On Sunday, Nova Scotia RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dal Hutchinson said the investigation is ongoing, and noted that officers are taking particular care due to the sensitive nature of the tragedy.
The incident was too traumatic to take proper statements from the girl’s parents and the person driving the float, he said, but “over time” police will speak with them.
“People are focusing on the fact that this little girl’s life was taken last night as the result of a tragic incident,” he said.
Parade organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday, but in a Facebook post on the Yarmouth Christmas Parade of Lights Facebook page, they said they were “devastated by the traumatic accident” during the parade.
“We, along with the community, mourn the family’s loss and are praying for everyone affected,” the post read.
Condolences are pouring in on social media, with some encouraging residents to help support the girl’s grieving parents.
The incident hit home for Chellesey Lusk, a Yarmouth woman who lost her infant son to SIDS in January. She said she wants to use her own experience with grief to help the family.
Lusk has been asking residents to make donations to help the girl’s parents with funeral costs.