Tonight, a family from the Antelope Extension area of Belize City is mourning the loss of 6-year-old Armando Godoy.
That tragic death happened around noon on Saturday when the boy lovingly called "Armandito" was crushed under a utility truck which killed him instantly.
Cherisse Halsall headed to the little boy's neighbourhood to learn more about his life and death from his a close family friend who was bringing him up with her own boy. Here's more:
Antelope Street Extension became a scene of acute tragedy over the weekend when a 6-year-old boy was killed in a fatal car accident, crushed under the right wheel of a Nexgen utility truck.
It's an event that's devastated not just the boy's mother and siblings but also the woman who's been like an aunt to him since the day he was born. This morning Erica Bermudez gave us her reflections of a moment of fate and circumstance that stole her friends' child.
Erica Bermudez, Roommate/ Friend
"Very Unfortunately it's a tragedy where no one is at fault because like any innocent child. The boy could never have imagined that this would happen. This is my son, he is my son, he was walking with my little nephew and they were going to buy and the kid was here with his phone, well it wasn't his phone but the other boy had left him with it and when he saw, that they, they weren't coming back. He went to look for them, he arrived at the shop and still, this one told him when he came back across you shouldn't run he said, You shouldn't run Armandito. And he came back to the same spot. My son went back again to the shop. When he went back, when he went back, the little boy was standing and the car was there."
"He, well, he was standing when he saw that the car was there. He was playing like any innocent child. He wanted to scare them. They've grown up like cousins although they aren't blood like cousins. He thought he would scare them because from the little that I know he was still crouched down like this. And I imagine that from what I know the driver just opened his door and got in, he never imagined that the boy was there."
But Armando was there and with how quickly the driver got in and drove away there was no time for anyone, not the 6-year-old or his watching peers to react.
Erica Bermudez, Roommate/ Friend
"My son was still screaming at him don't run, don't run he said, and from there my son came in shock, I was going toward the shop that moment and he came saying: Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, and I go what happened, son. They ran over Armandito, mommy."
"And I thought that I would see the boy hurt on one leg, sitting down, I don't know. When I arrived his mother was already coming, Nidia, she came very nervous and shocked as well. I held on to her and between her son and me because she wanted to be like any mother. She wanted to pick up her son, like any mother from there the police officer told me because my son was in a terrible state as well, he said take care of your son, take care of him because he saw everything. He saw everything, miss."
"How could he not have when the boy was on this side and he was in front of the shop? According to what they're saying, and the little that I know, they say that if he had taken one more step, and with the closeness that they were the car would have taken him and the other kid, all three."
That's a scenario that the company who owns the vehicle would scarcely want to begin to contemplate. And last night NEXGEN expressed sympathies in a statement that said quote, "We will extend our support to the family as Armando is laid to rest." And continued saying quote: "We wish to assure that we will continue to fully cooperate with the authorities through the course of the investigation."
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"He was detained and an IP was served, samples obtained, and um, he was, um, informed that he was being detained for manslaughter by negligence."
He's facing charges, but the family is under accusation by the community. Over the weekend, there was public outrage with Armando's parents when many claimed that a 6 is too young to be sent out on a solo errand.
Cherisse Halsall:
"That the mother had sent the 6-year-old boy to buy?"
Erica Bermudez, Roommate/ Friend
"No, no, no, no it's a lie, it's a lie and we know that we were here and he didn't even go to buy. The ones that went to the store were my son and my nephew, not him, he didn't he went behind them. He went to look for them."
The Driver of that Nexgen truck, 43-year-old Dion Logan has since been charged with manslaughter by negligence. He was also made to provide urine samples to the police.
Armando leaves behind his mother, older brother and 6-year-old twin sister.
