Police, family seek answers after 3-year-old boy injured in Jeannette hit-and-run
The hit-and-run of a 3-year-old boy earlier this week has a Jeannette family searching for answers and police investigating.
The boy's mother says her son was hit so hard he flew several feet in the air and is now recovering from a concussion and multiple other injuries.
It all happened around 11:40 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7. Marissa McGowan, her boys and one of their friends were on the 800 block of Gaskill Avenue in Jeannette after returning from a basketball game in Pittsburgh.
They were in good spirits. The boys were throwing a football. And as they went to cross the street to their vehicle, a car sped down the block, at first seeming to slow down to let them all pass, even flashing its lights. But then, that car sped up and hit Marissa McGowan's three-year-old son Romans.
"It hit him and you could hear the screeching of his brakes and my baby hitting (the car)," McGowan said.
"So that person knew, they knew that they hit somebody?" asked KDKA's Chris DeRose.
"Yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt," said McGowan.
McGowan raced her son to the hospital, where he was treated for a concussion and several other injuries. On Thursday, he celebrated his fourth birthday while recovering at home. While he remains in decent spirits, McGowan says he knows what happened to him and is still shaken.
Police, meanwhile, tell KDKA that while the closest street cameras were not operational at the time, they are looking for other videos from nearby residences and they are working on several leads to find the person who hit this little boy.
"Every time I leave and come back home, my son's always asking me, 'did you find the car?' McGowan said. "So, I know that he can probably see that I am visibly upset about it too and it breaks my heart to see him like that and having to go through something like that. And then when I think about the fact that we don't know who or why they left or anything, it just really frustrates me."
Police in the city of Jeannette are investigating this incident, and they are asking for the public's help. Anyone with any information on this case is asked to contact them at (724) 527-4013.
