FLORISSANT, Mo. — For most of the day, the Fourth of July had been a fun holiday for 14-year-old A'Mani Clark and his family.
"We were visiting family for the Fourth of July. We had just gotten there. They were popping bottle rockets," said Tyerra Henderson, the Florissant teen's mom.
However, at about 8 p.m. Tuesday came a tragic turn.
"When all the kids were running back and forth, I didn't see them," Henderson said.
Police said a review of nearby surveillance video showed A'Mani first playing with fireworks, running into the street between vehicles as he ran from an exploding firework and was hit by a sports utility vehicle.
The driver of the older, gray model SUV left the scene.
"An accident is an accident, but the way that driver did him was no accident. The driver rolled him over and kept going, so you had no remorse, " said Lamondre Sandford, the boy's father.
It happened near the intersection of Shreve and Lee avenues in the Penrose neighborhood on the city's north side.
"My son now has a fracture to his skull, a fracture to his face and he has bleeding on his brain. It's extremely tough seeing him like this with his eyes swollen shut. He has not opened his eyes," Henderson said.
"I saw his shoes in the street. He came out of his shoes," Amani's 16-year-old brother, Brandon Clark, said.
"I picked him up after he was just lying on the ground bleeding and took him around the corner and then called for my mom," Brandon said.
Police rushed the boy to a hospital due to a shortage of citywide ambulances that night.
Among other things, a spokesperson for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said "Police, fire and EMS were inundated with a higher than normal volume of calls given the Fourth of July holiday."
"Those officers were able to put my son in the back of their car, and we trailed them to the hospital. I'm really appreciative and thankful to them," A'Mani's mother said.
The ninth grader's cousin prays drivers, who she said routinely speed through her north side neighborhood, would stop and obey the traffic signs.
"It is so ridiculous and just keeps on happening," Regina Murphy said. "St. Louis is getting out of control with reckless driving. The city, the police, somebody needs to do something about it."
In the meantime, the teen's heartbroken parents pray for their son.
"I just hope if anybody knows that driver or recognized the person, that they will call police. Any tip would help, so we can get some justice for A'Mani," his father said.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run driver or the SUV should call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
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