Police: Boy, 5, dies after being run over by father

A 5-year-old boy has died after he was run over by his father in an apparent accident in southwest Detroit, according to police.

The 27-year-old father backed over his child in a Saturn Vue around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday on the 7300 block of Parkwood, near Michigan and Livernois, Officer Shanelle Williams said.

“(The driver) put his vehicle in reverse and backed over the child,” Williams said. “He thought (the child) was in the backseat of the vehicle, but somehow the child got out.”

The boy was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, Williams said.

The father was questioned by police but was not taken into custody.

Tuesday’s incident came just over a month after another 5-year-old boy was killed in Pontiac and an 11-month-old girl died in Detroit in similar incidents.

In Pontiac, a little boy died around 4:45 p.m. Aug. 24 on Kettering near Newman, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. His 25-year-old mother was driving when she heard her other child call out for her, officials said at the time. The woman began to slow to a stop, but then felt a thump.

Her son was rushed to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, where he was pronounced dead.

Less than one week earlier, 10-month-old Jada Taylor was killed around 6:30 p.m. Aug. 18 after she apparently ran from a backyard on the 19500 block of Westmoreland, police said at the time. Her mother was preparing to wash her vehicle and moved it forward, striking the child.

HFournier@detroitnews.com

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