On Saturday afternoon, a Maryland woman has been killed in Virginia after a 12-year-old boy threw himself off an overpass and landed on her vehicle.
Marisa Harris, 22, from Olney, was driving under the Cedar Lane overpass on Interstate 66 when the boy – who is not being named – landed on her Ford Escape.
Marisa Harris, 22, died when a 12-year-old boy threw himself off an overpass onto her car in Virginia on Saturday. Harris, of Olney, Maryland, died on the scene
The boy threw himself 30 feet off this I-66 overpass near Exit 62. He survived and was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. He has not been identified
While the boy had amazingly survived, Harris was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders, reported NBC Washington.
According to local authorities, Harris was driving Eastbound, when the crash occurred at 4.18pm near Exit 62 in Fairfax County. The reason for the boy to make the 30-foot drop has not yet been confirmed. As the jumper was a child, police haven’t announced his name, but currently he has been taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital and is under treatment for life-threatening injuries, WTOP reported.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, a man in Harris’ front passenger seat was able to stop the car on the left shoulder. He was uninjured, police said.
In an early report, it was initially thought that the jumper and Harris were both men. Why Harris was in Virginia at the time is still uncleared.
The interstate between Nutley Street and Gallows Road was closed for several hours as police worked the scene.
According to the CDCs, between 1999 and 2015, 711 children aged 12 committed suicide in the US. Among which, 507 were male and 204 female; the lowest rates were in 2007 and 2008, when 25 children committed suicide each year; by 2014 and 2015 that had risen to 68 and 56, respectively.
Harris is seen here during travels in happier times. Between 1999 and 2005, 711 children aged 12 killed themselves in the US
During the same period in USA, 1,309 children aged 5-12 killed themselves, equal to one every five days. The number of fail suicide attemps among children is unclear, but the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says that on average – taken into account adult statistics – with every life lost, there are 25 attempts.
If you need to speak to a counselor, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 1 (800) 273-8255.
A teacher has testified in the murder trial in the case of a Palmdale, California, boy who died in May 2013. Isauro Aguirre, 37, is charged in the death of the 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, and also faced the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture, reported NBC San Diego.
Teacher of Slain California Boy Says He Confided in Her About Abuse
The boy’s mother, 34-year-old Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, will be tried separately.
Gabriel Fernandez. (Facebook)
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both Aguirre and Fernandez. Aguirre was her live-in boyfriend.
Gabriel Fernandez’s first-grade teacher said she found a note hidden in his desk days after she learned of his deceased.
The note said “I love you mom and Gabriel is a good boy,” reported ABC7. She said that in 2013, Gabriel had confided in her that he was being beaten at home and she notified the Department of Children and Family Services.
He said “‘Sometimes my mom makes me bleed,’ and I asked him, ‘Where do you bleed?’ and he replied, ‘Well, on my bottom cause she hits me with a belt.’ And he said, ‘You know that part with the metal on it? That part,’” Garcia can be heard saying in a recording of a phone call produced in court.
Garcia said bruises, wounds, and other injuries could be observed upon inspecting the boy.
Doctor describes injuries to Gabriel Fernandez’s body, testifies he was determined brain dead https://t.co/0cMjjxxVau
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) Ngày 27 tháng 10 năm 2017
“Are you sure that that’s what really happened? And then he did eventually tell me and he was really angry and he said, ‘Well, it’s cause my mom shot me in the face with a BB gun,’” reported Garcia.
Garcia added that she was afraid to speak to the Department of Children and Family Services as it could result to the boy suffered more abuse.
#JusticeForGabriel Trial Begins in Torture Death of Gabriel Fernandez | NBC Southern California https://t.co/yEkwh6Lmgp via @nbcla
— #Justice4AdrianJones (@birdychirps) Ngày 21 tháng 10 năm 2017
In 2013, she was told that the boy went to live in Texas. Garcia hoped it was true, but the child was found dead a week later.
This week, medical examiner Dr. James Ribe testified that numerous injuries to the boys’s feet and head had been found, which eight BBs were recovered from the boy’s body. One was removed from his lung and seven other BBs were recovered during an autopsy, as NBC reported.
Ribe said “All of these injuries were inflicted by a caregiver,”, adding that the boy’s injuries could not have been self-inflicted or accidental.
Ribe said that the boy “probably hadn’t been eating,” adding that his intestines had “very little content.” His thymus gland was “barely even there” and there was an “almost a complete absence of body fat,” he testified.
“So, Gabriel wasn’t being fed?” Deputy District Attorney Scott Yang asked him.
“Correct,” Ribe confirmed.