Crowd Delays Miami Medics Treating Boy
An agitated crowd gathered at the scene where a 6-year-old boy was struck by a car, menacing the terrified driver and interfering with paramedics.
An agitated crowd gathered at the scene where a 6-year-old boy was struck by a car, menacing the terrified driver and interfering with paramedics arriving to treat the child Wednesday evening, police and fire department spokesmen said.
Stacheck Gue, whose sixth birthday was Tuesday, was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center in extremely critical condition with head trauma and possible internal injuries, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll. Carroll said Stacheck wasn't conscious as he was taken to the hospital.
Members of the mob pounded on the driver's car and also on the first Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue truck to arrive, and then hounded paramedics as they tried to get to the fallen child -- actions Miami Police Department spokesman Delrish Moss called ``ridiculous.''
''The kid is lying in the street,'' Moss said. ``He should be the [crowd's] primary concern, not beating on the car [that struck him] after an accident.''
100 PEOPLE
Carroll, who arrived five minutes after the first rescue crew arrived, said paramedics couldn't get through the crowd of 100 to reach the injured child.
''People were fussing with the paramedics about why they didn't get here earlier,'' Carroll said. ''I understand there were some people frustrated, who thought there was a delay in the [fire-rescue] response, but you only delay it further by impeding us getting to the patient,'' Carroll said.
Moss said there was no indication Marie Medjine Andre, 25, who struck the child, ever tried to leave the scene. She was still there -- locked inside her 1989 Chevrolet Blazer and frightened as the crowd beat on her vehicle -- when Miami police arrived.
Andre was not injured.
''She was shaken up and scared,'' Moss said. ``All indications are that this was a pure accident, but there is more we have to find out.''
Andre told investigators that she screamed to the mob through a slightly opened window: ``Help him, help him!''
Stacheck's mother was at Jackson on Wednesday evening with her son, Moss said. The family lives just a short distance from the accident scene, in the 100 block of Northwest 69th Street, he said.
CROSSING STREET
Moss said Andre was driving south on Northwest Second Avenue shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday, and had just crossed 69th Street when Stacheck ''somehow darted into the street,'' attempting to cross from west to east, when he was struck.
Carroll said the accident call was logged at 5:55 p.m., and the first fire-rescue crew -- coming from its station 10 blocks away at Northeast 62nd Street and First Avenue, arrived seven minutes later.
It took the three paramedics several crucial moments just to locate Stacheck because of the crowd that had surrounded him on the poorly lit section of Northwest Second Avenue. Paramedics decided they could not treat the boy on the street because of the mob. Instead, they placed him into a vehicle and treated him en route, Carroll said.
Moss said police officers had to assist the paramedics evacuating the boy because of the crowd. No one in the crowd was arrested, and most dispersed when backup police units arrived, he said.
The victim arrived at Jackson at 6:15 p.m. -- 20 minutes after the first emergency call was received, Carroll said.
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