Mom kills 2yearold daughter in “tragic and sad” accident
A woman who was driving her older children to school backed her pickup into her 2yearold daughter and killed her early Wednesday morning in a Westminster mobile home park, authorities say.
“The child is deceased,” said Cheri Spottke, spokeswoman for the Westminster Police Department. “It’s tragic and sad.”
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
The mother, who has not been identified, had loaded two schoolage children in her pickup before backing up over her 2yearold daughter, Spottke said. Police were called at 7:05 a.m. One neighbor, Jenny Gee, said she hopped out of bed when she heard “bloodcurdling screams” by the mother. When she rushed out of her house, she thought — hoped — it was a dog and not a child that had been struck by the pickup.
Gee, who spent 10 years in the Army National Guard, checked the toddler’s pulse and “knew right away that she was gone.”
As the mother stood by the pickup, overcome with emotion, Gee asked a neighbor to bring over a piece of plywood to block the mother’s view of the body “so she didn’t have to keep looking at the whole scene.”
More than a dozen family members of the child gathered near a corner of the mobile home where the accident happened. Many were in tears.
Jessica Delgado, who lives directly across the street, said she awoke when her daughter came running into her room saying “our neighbor has run over a little girl.” Delgado went outside and saw the little girl lying next to the car. “It’s really hard as a parent to see something like this,” she said in Spanish.
Another neighbor, Mary Miller, said the family of the little girl has been “nothing but awesome. No trouble ever, no cops.”
Gee said the mother “seemed just like a normal mom, attentive, never neglectful or anything like that.”
The accident happened at 8601 Zuni St. in the High View mobile home park. The mobile homes in the community sit in neat rows. It’s a neighborhood with plenty of kids. Bikes are strewn in yards. Pickup trucks sit in driveways. It’s usually a quiet place.
Many neighbors stood outside Wednesday morning, chatting among themselves as police cars, ambulances and firetrucks blocked traffic on the small street. Police said it didn’t appear the woman had been using drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
“We don’t believe that it is anything but an accident, but we’re going to look into it and make sure there was nothing criminal,” Spottke said.
The child’s identity will be released by the coroner’s office, Spottke said.