Family mourns child killed by car
Jeremiah Lopez, 6, was riding a skateboard when he was struck Saturday.
LOXAHATCHEE GROVES — On Saturday, Veronica Lopez experienced a horror no parent wants to imagine.
As she watched from a few feet away outside a home in suburban POSTNOW
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West Palm Beach, Lopez’s 6-year-old son Jeremiah darted out of a driveway while crouched on his skateboard, and rode into the path of an oncoming 2009 Jeep Cherokee.
The SUV hit Jeremiah with its right front end, then rolled over him, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.
Lopez, 29, rushed to her son’s side and attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but her efforts were futile. Jeremiah, a Loxahatchee Groves Elementary School student,
died in his mother’s arms.
Lopez and Jeremiah were visiting family members at the time of the crash, which took place just after 5 p.m. in the 4500 block of Bensel Street, off Military Trail northwest of Palm Beach International Airport.
Surrounded by family members Tuesday at her home on C Road in Loxhatchee Groves, Lopez emotionally recounted stories about her only child while rubbing a tattoo of baby footprints with the letter J — for Jeremiah — on her left hand.
“He’s here holding my hand,” Lopez said. “He’s going to keep me safe because I’m afraid.”
At the family’s home, a makeshift shrine has been set up in the living room that includes some of Jeremiah’s favorite things including his guitar, his scooter and the cowboy boots he loved showing off by making “sure you heard him walking through that door.”
Besides the shrine, there are memories of Jeremiah everywhere in the ranchstyle home, including in the front yard, where a golf cart has his name printed on the side. WANT TO HELP?
To contribute to the GoFundMe account for Jeremiah Nicholas Lopez, go online to www.gofundme.com/ our-angel-jeremiahtaken-too-soon
Jeremiah and his grandfather, Eloy Lopez, played a game in which one asked the other “You know what?” and then competed with each other to be the first to say, “I love you.”
“He was my only boy — the best thing I ever had,” Eloy Lopez said.
Family members say that Veronica Lopez was a doting mother, constantly at her child’s side.
That was the case Saturday when Lopez and her husband, Roberto Lopez, who is also Jeremiah’s adoptive father, went to visit a family member who lives on Bensel Street.
Jeremiah was an “adventurous” boy who loved to be outside on his bike or scooter or skateboard, his mother said.
With the Lopezes about 5 feet away, Jeremiah rode his skateboard down a dip in a driveway and onto the street where he was struck.
Akos Koleszar, 39, of suburban West Palm Beach was driving the Jeep when it hit the boy, but is not facing any charges. The crash took place just a couple of houses from Koleszar’s residence on Bensel Street, the Sheriff ’s Office said.
“It seemed to come out of the sky, out of nowhere,” Lopez said of the Jeep Cherokee, adding that she held no animosity toward Koleszar.
PBSO pointed out that Jeremiah was not wearing a helmet or any protective equipment. But family members said Tuesday that nothing could have saved Jeremiah.
Lopez said she shot a video of Jeremiah just before his death. The boy’s last words, she said, were, “I love you mommy.”
The loss of her child, Lopez said, should be reason “for every mother and father to hold your babies tight, tell them you love them every chance you get no matter if you’re angry or sad. Because you never know.”
A celebration of Jeremiah’s life will take place at noon Sunday at the Sea Oats Pavilion at Carlin Park in Jupiter. A GoFundMe account has been set up to r aise money to help his family with funeral costs.