Northeast DC

‘She ran over my son': 9-year-old seriously hurt in DC hit-and-run

A woman in a a dark blue or gray SUV ran over Zion on Minnesota Avenue NE as he headed to school

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The parents of a 9-year-old boy are at his hospital bedside after he was hurt in a hit and run in DC. They're trying to explain to him why the person who ran him over drove away and left him on the ground.

That hit and run happened at about 8 a.m. Monday on Minnesota Avenue in Northeast D.C.

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“I look back, and my son is on the ground," Davion Rawlings said. “She ran over my son and kept going. As I go chase the car, I try to stop her, but I realize my son is lying on the ground.”

Rawlings said he was taking his son, Zion, to school Monday morning when they decided to make a quick stop at a convenience store in a small shopping center in the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE. Then came the horrifying split second that's difficult to talk about and likely will be forever.

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Zion was rushed to Children's National Hospital.

Rawlings broke as he described his son's injuries.

"Broke his pelvis bone, bruised his lungs, so they got him on the tube — it’s hard for him to breathe at this moment,” Rawlings said. “Broken ankle, yeah, swollen face on his right side.”

Tiffany Chambers is doing her best to comfort her son, who is in so much pain.

“Just how strong he is, how much we love him,” she said. “Makes us happy he's able to breathe, smile again,” she said.

D.C. police said the vehicle that hits Zion is a dark blue or gray SUV with an unknown license plate driven by a woman who appeared to be middle-aged.

Through his pain, Rawlings wanted to thank a good Samaritan who stepped forward that morning in the middle of the nightmare.

“It was a wonderful woman that came, I don’t know her name, but if she's seeing this, I want to tell her thank you, because she was the only person that had an initiative to take out her phone and call 911,” he said.

D.C. police want to hear from anyone who knows something or saw something. There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

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