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An 11-month-old girl died and her grandparents were injured this morning when a car slammed into them in their church parking lot in North Kansas City.
A witness said the three were struck when a long-time member of the church backed his car out of a parking spot and “shot out like a cannon.” He slammed into another vehicle, overturned a fire hydrant then squealed backward about 50 feet down a street until he stopped.
In the parking lot, three people who had been walking behind the car were on the ground — an 11-month-old girl with her grandmother and grandfather.
People rushed to the victims, said Cec Reed, whose car was parked directly in front of the driver.
“I can still hear the screaming — men, women, everyone rushing to help,” he said tonight. “My wife and I have prayed and cried all day.”
One young woman started CPR on the girl, he said. “Then she stopped and looked up in the sky and screamed, ‘Oh my God, no! Please, God, no!”
All three were rushed to the hospital. The girl was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. Her grandparents’ conditions were not immediately known.
“The heartbreak on this day goes deep,” said the Rev. Tiger Pennington, First Baptist Church’s minister. About 90 members of the church came together in the evening. Pennington faced their tear-stained faces, trying to lift them with Bible verses. He asked God for healing.
Several church families are devastated, he said.
He said: “Death will not have the final word this day."
