4-year-old boy killed by pickup truck in Avalon Park identified by family: 'He was so loved'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A young boy was fatally struck by a pickup truck Sunday evening on the city's South Side.

There was heartache outside of the hospital where the toddler died and where his family gathered.

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The crash happened around 5:24 p.m. in the 8100 block of South Harper Avenue, Chicago police said. A 4-year-old boy was hit by a pickup truck that attempted to turn right onto South Harper Avenue from East 82st Street.

"The truck hit him and then he fell, and then the back tire rolled over his head," neighbor Kenneth Howard said. "I just started praying, and I just started to try and help out as much as I could."

Relatives of the boy identified him as Xyaire Askew and say he had ran out into the street while playing with his young relatives when he was hit. The boy had been visiting his father.

The boy was taken to Comer Children's Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

"Just seeing him, it's like, I can't take my baby back with me," the boy's mother, Cheronda Morris, said. "Such an amazing person. He was so lovable... so lovable, and I loved that boy to pieces, and I know he loved me back."

Loved ones had gathered to celebrated a life to come at a baby shower just down the street from where another young life was cut short.

"He's four, you know? Not 14, not 40, four! It kind of hurts," the boy's grandmother, Yuvair Jones, said. "As a grandma, you just want to pick him up, take him home, but I can't."

Askew's mother is now left heartbroken over the loss of her only son.

"Everybody's going to leave and go home and, 'I'm sorry,' and all the condolences, but I have to stay with the trauma," Morris said.

There were heavy hearts Sunday night outside of Comer Children's Hospital.

"It hurts I'll never have a moment with him again," the boy's uncle, Craig Jones, said.

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"Seeing my nephew when he was at birth, and seeing him... I can't believe it," he boy's aunt, Chellise Jones, said.

The driver of the pickup truck was placed into custody and was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian, police said.

No further information about the crash was immediately available as police continue to investigate.