Boy, 4, fatally hit after bro’s funeral
A 4-year-old autistic boy was fatally struck by a car in Queens over the weekend after having just gotten home from his teenage brother’s funeral, family members told The Post on Sunday.
“There’s nothing inside me. There’s nothing. I’m empty,” said Michael McDonald, the father of little Domantea McDonald, who died Saturday, and Tysheem McDonald, 18, who was shot and killed two weeks ago.
“I just came from burying my [older] son. [Domantea] was only here for a split second to see me . . . He wasn’t supposed to leave the world like that.”
Domantea was outside his uncle’s Jamaica home on 147th Street at around 6 p.m. Saturday after returning from Tysheem’s funeral when he broke away from his mother and ran into the street, where he was hit by a Toyota RAV4, said family and cops.
The mom chased after the boy and was struck in the foot, police said. The driver stayed at the scene and has not been charged.
“Two in one month, it hurts,’’ said the dead brothers’ uncle, Maurice McDonald. “We had just come back from mourning one, and the other one died.”
Immediately after the accident, Domantea was still conscious and wriggling on the ground, screaming for his mother, his father recalled. The dad said he tried to hold the boy down to stabilize him while he waited for EMS workers to arrive.
“They said don’t move him, so I was keeping him on the floor, trying to keep him calm. His eyes were wide open. He was trying to get up. We held him there for however long it took for the Fire Department to get here,” Michael recalled.
“The firetruck came, and they told us, ‘Back away from him.’ The guy turned him to the side to check if he had any bruises, and Domantea saw his mother and wanted to go to her.”
Domantea started crawling to his mom, but after moving about five feet, he passed out and died on the pavement, his dad said.
‘He died right here’
“I started bugging out. He wasn’t sleepy, but it looked like he was falling asleep. I said, ‘No, wake him up, wake him up, wake him up!’ ” Michael recalled.
“He wasn’t breathing. He died right there. He didn’t die in no hospital. He died right here. I watched him leave his body right here because they let him crawl.”
Police said Domantea sustained severe head trauma and internal injuries and was pronounced dead at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
Michael questioned why first responders let Domantea move and said his death was preventable.
The FDNY said “lifesaving operations began as we transported the patient to the hospital” and didn’t immediately comment on the father’s claim.
“Domantea had special needs. He was the most wonderful soul in the world, the most wonderful boy anybody could want to meet,” Michael said.
Tysheem, his older son, was shot in the chest Aug. 7 as he and another man, 24, were in a white car in Brookville and someone fired at them from a gray sedan, authorities said. Tysheem was pronounced dead at a hospital. The other man was wounded.
Cops suspected it was a gangrelated hit, police sources said.
“Tysheem lived in the streets. I accepted it. That was my son. I couldn’t tell him nothing. His mother couldn’t tell him. His uncles couldn’t tell him. He wanted to be his own man,” Michael said.
“But he loved his little brother. He only met him a handful of times, and Domantea was very autistic, but when he would see Tysheem, he would go to him. He wouldn’t go to anybody else, but when he saw his big brother, he went to him.”
No arrests had been made in Tysheem’s death.