Nationwide — Harmonie Wright, an African American mother from Brooklyn, New York, lost her 4-year-old son, Zachariah, in a hit-and-run near Brookdale Hospital Thursday morning. She recounted the terrifying moment she saw him struck and dragged by a car while she tried to save him.
Wright, a mother of six, is now grieving two of her three sons. Her oldest, 21-year-old Elijiah Wright, was shot and killed last year. Zachariah Padilla, her youngest, became her second loss in just over a year. “He’s an angel. That’s my last child,” she said, according to ABC 7 NY.
The accident happened around 11 a.m. as Wright and her children were leaving urgent care. Rain had made the streets slick, and Zachariah was splashing in puddles, playing with his Peppa Pig toy. In a split second, he ran into the street at the intersection of Rockaway Parkway and Linden Boulevard.
“Tried to catch him. I couldn’t catch him, but the guy hit me too,” Wright recalled. “I saw my kid flying. He dragged my kid 150 feet, and then he ran away.” Despite being struck, her adrenaline kept her moving. She scooped up Zachariah and rushed him inside the hospital, but it was too late.
The NYPD is actively searching for a white Ford SUV involved in the crash. Wright described the pain of losing her “flesh of my flesh” and urged the driver to face responsibility. “Love will win,” she said. “You can’t go over it. You can’t go under it. You just going to have to go through this.”
Zachariah’s death has left a quiet void in the Wright home. His mother hopes the community will remember him for his playful and loving spirit, as the search for the hit-and-run driver continues.