A two-year-old boy was struck -- but, miraculously survived -- a hit-and-run crash in downtown San Diego near Petco Park Thursday night.
"I just turned around and seen that my baby was under the truck," Maya Deloath, the panicked mother of two-year-old Ronnie, told NBC 7. "Between here and here I pulled him out like that."
Ronnie may only be two but he has a big understanding of the scary thing that happened to him.
"Car, right here. Car, right here. Car," the toddler repeated, as his mother spoke with NBC 7.
Deloath, grateful her son was not hurt, cried as she held her little boy, saying she would never let him go again.
San Diego Police Department (SDPD) Sgt. Carmelin Rivera said the hit-and-run is under investigation, and said it appears the driver "maybe didn't see the baby."
"[The suspect] hits the two-year-old boy...and the baby ends up underneath the car. Mom and a couple of people who were hanging out here pulled the baby out and then the vehicle began to speed away," Sgt. Rivera explained, recounting the collision.
Local
At around 6:30 p.m., Ronnie was hit by a truck at a slow speed in a parking lot near 13th and Imperial downtown.
The driver of the truck left and the scene as bystanders tried to stop him.
Luckily, Ronnie survived the hit-and-run without any visible injuries, officers said Thursday. He was evaluated by a medic at the scene of the collision.
Shocked witnesses said Ronnie's survival story is a miracle.
"That was a blessing that that baby is walking," one witness told NBC 7.
"I saw [the suspect] run after he hit the baby. He was a little boy. Why would he hit him like that?" another witness said.
San Diego police are still searching for the driver involved in this hit-and-run. The suspect's truck is described as a red Toyota pickup truck with a broken window.
