Boys & Girls Club, driver sued in ’15 death of 9-year-old girl

The mother of a 9-year-old Orlando girl struck and killed by a car on her way home from the Boys & Girls Club has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the club, the driver and his employer, according to court documents.

Shanese Carr is asking for money to pay for her daughter’s medical and funeral costs, claiming the defendants were negligent in her daughter’s death. She is also asking for at least $15,000 in compensation — the standard in circuit court — for her and her daughter’s father’s mental pain and suffering.

It was about 8 p.m. Nov. 19, 2015, when Ariana and her three siblings were headed home from the club on Hernandes Drive near Pine Hills Road.

The Mollie Ray Elementary School student and another sibling tried darting across Pine Hills Road, but Ariana didn’t make it. She was run over by a northbound gold 2002 Acura driven by Mik’ell Berry.

The lawsuit claims the Boys & Girls Club should have released the children before 6:30 p.m. or contacted Carr to let her know the children had stayed later than usual.

Attorney Ortavia Simon said his client believed it was a policy violation to release the children so late without adult supervision.

Ariana’s siblings claimed she had a green signal as she ran across the street to wave down a bus to take them home, Carr told the Orlando Sentinel in 2015. Two witnesses and Berry told Florida Highway Patrol troopers that Berry had the green light, Sgt. Kim Montes, an agency spokeswoman, said at the time. Another witness said he had a yellow light.

Montes also said witnesses told troopers Ariana and one sibling ran against the traffic light and were not in the crosswalk. Berry was not criminally charged.

But Simon said just because there’s no moving violation doesn’t mean Berry can’t be held responsible.

“You have a duty to pedestrians,” he said. “You can’t just run them over because they’re not in the crosswalk.”

Berry was driving his father’s car and was using it to conduct work when he struck Ariana, so the father, who also is his employer, is named in the suit.

Mitchell Berry is being sued for vicarious liability.