Car dragged toddler’s body in fleeing hit-and-run scene

Western Bureau:

A pall of gloom is hanging over John’s Hall, St James, home of two-year-old Sasha-Gaye ‘Munchie’ Dennis, who succumbed to injuries she sustained when she and her 10-year-old sister were mowed down by a motor car along the Howard Cooke Boulevard in Montego Bay shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Yesterday, a distraught Diana Whitely was beside herself as she recounted the fateful night and grappled with the tragic reality of her daughter’s death.

“Mi and the four children a come from di beach. Wi stop off and buy ice cream, and then wi decide fi buy chicken at KFC when di man kill mi pickney,” 34-year-old Whitely told The Gleaner.

“A car stop fi mek wi cross, and mi don’t know weh the other driver come from. Mi jus si when him ‘zoops’ round the car, and next ting mi know, him lick down Munchie and Shadea (the injured sister),” added Whitely.

She said that the driver briefly stopped before speeding away.

“When him realise seh him lick dem down, the car stop, and a man who was in the front seat jumped out, but the driver shout after him and seh, ‘Come back inna the car!’ and as him jump back inna the car, dem drive weh wid mi baby under the bottom,” recalled the grieving mother.

According to reports, Whitely and her four children were on their way back from the beach when a motorist stopped to allow them to cross Howard Cooke Boulevard close to a popular KFC outlet.

While they were crossing, a white 2009 Nissan Note motor car sped around the car that had stopped and mowed down Sasha-Gay and her sister, who was carrying the toddler in her arms. In fleeing the scene, the car dragged the little girl’s body several chains along the roadway, much to the horror of onlookers.

The injured sister, identified as 10-year-old Hanesea ‘Shadea’ Palmer, was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where she was admitted in serious but stable condition.

The Montego Bay police have launched a manhunt for the driver.