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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

'How can you run over two girls?'

“Don’t die on me!”
You can imagine a soldier yelling those desperate words to a wounded comrade on some gritty battlefield, half a world away.
Yesterday, they were uttered by 8-year-old Eryca Bradfield to her twin sister, Kaitlyn, moments after both girls were mowed down by a heartless hit-and-run driver in Crescentville, a relative of the youngsters said.
The adorable, inseparable sisters were on their way to a corner store on Cheltenham Avenue near Colgate Street about 3:30 p.m. when they were struck by a gray Lincoln Town Car that sped from the scene, police officials said.
Eryca, amazingly, suffered only bumps and bruises, said her aunt, Dorothea Ball. She was expected to be released from St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where she was treated for minor injuries.
Kaitlyn was not as lucky.
Police said the Lincoln rolled over the little girl, leaving tire marks on her clothes and abdomen. She was listed in critical condition last night at St. Christopher’s.
A number of local residents chased after the fleeing motorist and jotted down the Lincoln’s license plate number.
An arrest in the case was expected to come soon, an investigator said last night. Police found a car that they believe might have been involved, at Cheltenham Avenue near Summerdale Avenue.
Police said they had talked with the owner of the car but it was unclear who had been driving it.
While Kaitlyn was being monitored by doctors in an intensive care unit, her relatives tried to come to grips with the truly horrific turn of events.
“She might have some internal injuries. She has a tube down her throat, and the doctors said her stomach is distended,” said Ball.
“Everyone is devastated.”
Earlier in the day, both girls enjoyed an off day from school while they played at Ball’s house on Lawndale Avenue near Robbins Street.
Kaitlyn, the quieter of the two and a huge Hannah Montana fan, pranced around the house in a tiara, a leftover accessory from the princess costume she wore on Halloween, the aunt said.
When playtime was over, Ball said she dropped the girls off at their house on Cheltenham Avenue near Colgate Street.
Their mother, Mary Anne McIntyre, was home, as were the girls’ brothers, Jaycob, 14, and Jayson, 10, Ball noted. Their father, Eric Bradfield, was not at home.
“My husband gave them both a dollar, so they were pretty excited,” Ball said.
“I think they just decided to walk to the corner store near their house to buy something.”
Ball said she and other relatives frequently warn the girls about being mindful of cars that sometimes speed down residential streets. As a safety precaution, the sisters learned to hold hands when they crossed the street.
Ball said the girls were probably arm-in-arm on their way to the store yesterday.
In an instant, everything changed, and the girls — second-graders at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School — became victims of a painfully violent crime.
“Eryca said to her sister, ‘Don’t die on me!’ Those two, they’re inseparable,” Ball said.
“How do people sleep at night? How can you run over two little girls?”
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 4:42 PM  Permalink | 3 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:05 AM, 11/04/2009
    I pray that they are both okay. And to the person who hit these babies turn yourself in.Deal with your demons.Its better to face facts than to run from your problems
    — mizzbryant
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:22 AM, 11/04/2009
    Long long Long long Long long Long incarceration for this callous person.
    — zen
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:04 PM, 11/04/2009
    Incarceration? Run this **** w a car!
    — katekat


3 comments
About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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