‘It happened so fast’
MOM TELLS HOW TRUCK KILLED TRAGIC TOT
TEARS STREAMED down the face of a Queens mother Friday as she recounted how she helplessly watched as a pickup truck crushed her 1-year-old daughter to death.
Frederique Rowe, 24, said she had no time to react when a white Dodge Ram ran over the pink stroller carrying Skylar Perkins Thursday night in Elmhurst.
“It just all happened so fast,” a teary Rowe told the Daily News, trembling as she spoke.
“He didn’t know. He couldn’t see,” she added Friday, referring to the driver.
“I had to pull my daughter from under the truck . ... I said, ‘You killed my baby.’”
Rowe was pushing Skylar across 23rd Ave. about 8:40 p.m. when the truck driver made a right turn from 94th St. and slammed into the buggy.
Witnesses described a gruesome scene — the stroller crumpled underneath the truck’s front wheel, the baby unresponsive on the ground.
Two NYPD officers, who happened to be nearby, rushed the traumatized mother and child to Elmhurst Hospital in an unmarked police car — but doctors couldn’t save little Skylar.
Her voice shaking with grief, Rowe described her daughter as “giggly” and “playful.”
The pair were on their way home from the store when tragedy struck, she said.
“I just wanted to get her something to eat,” said Rowe, who lives at The Landing family shelter on Ditmars Blvd. “That’s it! Something to eat.”
“It’s hard. Everything,” the inconsolable mother added. “My only child is gone.”
The driver, Wallace Ramirez, 44, of Massachusetts, was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, police said.
Witnesses said he broke down at the scene after jumping out of his vehicle and realizing he’d run over a baby.
“He didn’t know what he hit,” said witness Leo Guerrero, 45. “When he saw it was a baby, he went crazy.”
Cops said Rowe was crossing the street and had a green light.
“I don’t have any words for him,” Rowe said, choking up again. “We had the right of way.”
A friend, who showed up at Queens Criminal Court, said Ramirez was doing “pretty bad.”
The friend, who did not give his name, said Ramirez works in wastewater treatment and has five children, two of whom are disabled.
Rowe’s father, his eyes filling with tears, said he and his daughter were emotional wrecks.
“If he has kids, he should understand and know what we as parents, grandparents, are going through,” Frank Rowe said, referring to the driver.
“It’s my daughter’s only child. It’s very hard, very hard.”
A chef who often watched Skylar, Frank Rowe said he was struggling to come to terms with his granddaughter’s sudden death.
“What I would like people to know about it is to just love your grandchild or your child, just love them every minute, every second,” he said.
Dozens of community members held a vigil for Skylar Friday evening, at the corner where she lost her life.
Her mother collapsed and wailed in pain as she neared the spot of roadway.
“It’s heartbreaking. Everybody loves her,” said Jasmine Emory, 32, who has been friends with Rowe for 20 years.
Meanwhile, Ramirez was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court, where prosecutors said he told cops he smoked marijuana and used cocaine the night before the accident.
His defense lawyer argued that was not relevant because Ramirez was not charged with DUI or drug possession.
Bail was set at $10,000.