A driver sped into a fast-food parking lot in North Charlotte's Mallard Creek area Monday afternoon, struck a 5-year-old boy named Tyheir, then briefly stopped to ask if he was okay before driving away. The boy was pinned beneath the vehicle before his mother pulled him free, and investigators still have no confirmed description of the car or its driver.
The crash happened around 3:30 p.m. Monday as Dr. Ashley Parker had stopped at the restaurant with Tyheir and her 9-year-old daughter, according to WSOC-TV. Parker said she spotted the car entering the lot at high speed and tried to wave the driver down before the impact. “I see this guy coming into the lot really fast, and I kinda jump out, flag him down to stop him,” she said.
Trapped Beneath the Car
The vehicle struck Tyheir and he ended up trapped beneath it, the station's report states. Parker has said her son was pinned under the front end of the car and that the vehicle did not roll over him. She picked him up, placed him inside her own truck, and called 911.
While Parker was still on the phone with dispatchers, the driver approached her vehicle. “He says, ‘Is he okay?’” Parker recounted, before the driver walked away and left the scene entirely. In the chaos and shock of the moment, she was unable to record the vehicle's license plate number, per the same account.
Boy Recovering, Vehicle Still Unidentified
Tyheir was taken to a hospital and is recovering following the crash. Parker has said she is grateful her son survived, and Tyheir himself told his mother the driver was going too fast, according to the report.
Surveillance video from the area captured an image of the suspect car, but the footage's grainy quality has kept investigators from identifying the make, model or license plate. Channel 9 anchor and reporter Evan Donovan reached out to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department seeking further details on the vehicle and driver, but no official description, suspect identification or crash report has been released.
A Pattern of Unresolved Hit-and-Runs
The search for answers in Tyheir's case echoes other unresolved hit-and-run investigations in the area. WBTV reported on a pedestrian killed in a North Charlotte hit-and-run last year, while the outlet separately reported a Charlotte woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to felony hit-and-run and misdemeanor death by vehicle in a case involving a former Queens University student-athlete. Those cases underscore how fleeing drivers in the Charlotte area have faced serious legal consequences once identified — but for now, the driver who struck Tyheir remains unknown, and the investigation continues.
