Bx. mom’s fury: NYPD car hit my 10-year-old

A furious mom says her 10year-old daughter was crossing with the light when an NYPD car hit the youngster as she crossed a Bronx street.

Tanika Smith, 36, said her daughter Chante (inset) had the right of way when the police car barreled into her without its lights and sirens activated. Smith rushed out of her home Wednesday evening to see her daughter lying in the street on Hunts Point Ave. near Seneca Ave. in Hunts Point. “I was running down the steps and my knees got weak, and when I saw her I fell on my knees,” she said.

Chante survived, but suffered head pain and swelling to her ankles, and walks with a limp, her mom said.

“The police were coming with no sirens on, just speeding,” Smith said. “She’s aware that anytime there’s an emergency the cops have to have their sirens on.”

A police spokeswoman maintained Sunday that the officers were using their lights and sirens.

The cops were responding to a report of an emotionally disturbed person about two blocks away, on Faile St. and Lafayette Ave., “with lights and sirens … when a 10-yearold female pedestrian ran across the intersection and was struck by the passenger’s side front corner bumper,” said Detective Denise Moroney.

The crash left Chante traumatized, her mom said, and Smith said she doesn’t feel she’s gotten a satisfactory explanation from the NYPD.

“I think the cop needs to pay for what he did to my daughter. We need justice,” she said. “If there weren’t so many people out there they’d act like everything was OK. … Cops are supposed to help you, not hurt you.”