EXCLUSIVE: Mother Of 3-Year-Old Seriously Injured In Police Chase, Crash On I-95 Speaks To CBS3
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A police chase that ended in a chain-reaction crash on I-95, near the Philadelphia International Airport, on Wednesday left several people hurt -- including a 3-year-old boy.
The boy's mother is speaking out following the devastating event that injured her family and now has her 3-year-old in the ICU at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Meghan Stone-Kirts and her family were traveling from Baltimore to New York for some birthday fun. It was their first trip to the city. They were going to see the Statue of Liberty and visit the zoo, but that all ended in an instant when they were involved in the wreck on I-95.
Five of them were in the car. Almost all of them were injured. The most serious is 3-year-old David Tillman, who is now fighting for his life.
His mother tells Eyewitness News he suffered multiple skull fractures, a brain bleed and a spinal injury. She says he was seriously injured Wednesday during the police pursuit and crash on I-95 north, near the Enterprise Avenue exit.
Stone-Kirts says she was driving, when all of a sudden she was involved in a chain-reaction crash. She recalls being hit first by the suspect's car and then by police cruisers. She believes she was hit five or six different times.
Now, she has broken ribs, her husband does too, along with a skull fracture. Her brother, who was also in the car, has a concussion. Her daughter, who is turning 2 on Friday, was the only one to escape injury.
Her 3-year-old was seriously hurt and has been stabilized, but it's still touch-and-go. His family is praying their little boy pulls through.
"He is my 3-year-old, he's my best friend, he actually helped me grow up a lot," said Meghan Stone-Kirts, as she wiped away tears. "Right now, he's just being a tough guy. He's scared and he doesn't understand. It feels like a nightmare. I still can't process it. It's like one minute we are laughing, next minute, I'm hearing screaming and I'm just trying to find my way out of the car to get to them. He not only took my son's whole experience away, you have hurt this whole entire family and I just want you to get caught. It's not right that you can just destroy people's lives like this."
Two Wilmington police officers and a Pennsylvania State Police trooper also suffered minor injuries in the crash.
The suspect, Dejuan Robinson, remains on the loose. He is wanted for numerous offenses out of Delaware.
Two GoFundMe pages have been set up for the family: https://www.gofundme.com/kirts-family and https://www.gofundme.com/kirtsfamilystrong-support-through-the-crisis.
