MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An 11-year-old child is dead after a major car crash on the corner of Raleigh-Millington Road and Jones Road on Saturday.
“Nothing like this should ever happen to a child his age,” Cynthia Taylor said.
Joshua McDowell’s life was cut short.
“Young life gone for no apparent reason,” Taylor said. “It’s just hard for us to understand why something like this happened to him.”
Police said two women had been in an SUV before the driver lost control and the car flipped over.
Several witnesses told WREG the women were fighting in the front seat, but police have not confirmed that account.
“What I saw is a child fly past me on the ground,” Curtis Stephens, who is related to the women in the truck, said.
MPD officers said the children were standing on the sidewalk.
“It was a lot of crying but wasn’t nobody screaming,” Stephens said.
One of the women in the truck was three months pregnant.
“To know that my sister was in that car when that happened, you know, it hurt even more. I think it hurts her more,” Stephens explained.
“You don’t want to hear about no child getting hit or nothing,” Mamie Gordon said.
Neighbors held their children closer Saturday night, and Josh’s family looked for answers and remembered the person he was.
“He was loved,” Taylor said. “He was loved and he was supported by his family in spite of whatever was going on. He was loved.”
Investigators are still working to determine what caused the crash.
