Boy killed by forklift had adventurous spirit, family says

To his Tacony neighbors, Ethan Shoemaker was known as "Dennis the Menace." The 13-year-old blond boy looked like the cartoon character - and typically managed to wiggle his way out of trouble.

He swam in the Delaware River. He caught catfish in Ohio. He once disappeared for two days to a friend's house, prompting a police search, only to return wondering about all the commotion.

"No fear," said his father, George Shoemaker. "No-fear Ethan."

His last adventure came Sunday night. The boy and four friends sneaked into a paper company's warehouse, police said. The kids found some forklifts, which they used as bumper cars. A 13-year-old girl crashed hers into his.

It tilted over, crushing the boy underneath.

"We still think it's a dream," said Jennifer Shoemaker, an aunt. "I'm still waiting for him to come back with this story: 'You won't believe what happened.' "

She shook her head Tuesday afternoon in front of the family's porch on Princeton Avenue, as relatives made final preparations for the boy's funeral. They laughed about his raspy voice, and how hard it was to corral him.

"You had to be around him," said one aunt, Tina Zelonis. "Never a dull moment."

"No peace," Jennifer Shoemaker said. "None."

Ethan, they said, was always curious and always tempted danger. The payoff was when he could brag to everyone else.

A teacher once called him "Walt." "Because," Jennifer Shoemaker said, "he had more stories than Walt Disney."

Police said Tuesday that an investigation was ongoing.

The boy and his friends, all juveniles, entered the grounds of Newman Paper Co. on the 6100 block of Tacony Street sometime before 9:20 p.m.

The complex is surrounded by a chain-link fence. Police said the children slipped through a hole.

George Shoemaker, a moving-truck driver, does not believe it was the first time the kids had played there. It is about a 20-minute walk from the Shoemaker home.

Police said a security guard last checked the property where the accident occurred at 8:30 p.m. and found nothing unusual at the time. Newman Paper, in a statement, offered condolences to the boy's family.

The Shoemaker family lamented what they perceived to be a lack of security at Newman, where the children were trespassing.

"Kids will be kids," Jennifer Shoemaker said.

George Shoemaker thumbed through iPhone photos from his son's First Communion in 2013. He stared at one of father and son.

Next summer, George Shoemaker said, his company planned to have him do cross-country truck routes. His son would have come. The biggest adventure yet.

A neighbor walked up the concrete steps and embraced two of Ethan's aunts.

"He was such a little man," the neighbor said. "When I heard it - chills. I'm so, so sorry."

The aunts thanked her. The rest of the family sprawled outside, sipping beer or smoking cigarettes, and remembered Ethan's antics.

"He was always a risk-taker," Jennifer Shoemaker said. "He always thought he had nine lives."

mgelb@philly.com

215-854-2928 @MattGelb