Parents are charged after their son, 7, is struck dead in a car accident
www.nbcnews.com
Gastonia, N.C., police charged the parents with involuntary manslaughter charges after allowing the victim and his brother to walk home alone from a nearby grocery store.

The grieving parents of a 7-year-old child who died hours after being hit by a car were charged with involuntary manslaughter after allowing him and his brother, 10, to walk home unaccompanied by an adult from a nearby grocery store.

The 76-year-old driver will not face any charges.

The Food Lion store is two blocks away from their home. The parents said the children were with their mother when they asked to meet their father at the store, and she allowed them to leave

Gastonia police declined to comment to NBC News, but said in a statement that “there is no evidence of speeding or wrongdoing on the part of the driver, therefore no charges have been filed. The driver continues to be cooperative and the incident remains under active investigation by the Gastonia Police Department’s Traffic Division.”

Ivey, the mother, told WSOC before her arrest that it was the first time had she let the children walk alone. “It was just devastating, I’m still in shock, I’m in shock,” she said. “It’s hard, I haven’t stopped crying; my husband hasn’t stopped crying. Honestly, I want justice for my baby.”

  • Beaver [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    29·
    3 days ago

    I just genuinely don’t understand what the prosecutors in this case think they’re fucking doing. They’re going to waste a ton of fucking time and money to send the parents to prison and fuck up the other kid’s childhood. There is no dangerous criminal to be isolated from society, they’re just making everything worse. How can they live with themselves?

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      3 days ago

      In a car brained society, so something like the US, prosecutors will often sympathize way harder with the car driver than anybody else unless there’s two of them involved.

      They can see themselves whoopsy-ing a child to death in their car much more than they can see themselves having children or alternatively not keeping those children imprisoned until they can drive their own cars or being somewhere where “this sort of thing doesn’t happen.”

      Sometimes it’s a bit more subtle, like here, but surprisingly often prosecution or even the judges will just directly come out and say such things. It’s just most car “accidents” don’t make any sort of national or even regional news on account of how ubiquitous they are so it’s mostly buried in boring ass local court files.