The 11-year-old boy ran out into the darkness, crying out, “Where is Taha?”
Family did their best to shield the boy from the sight of his 5-year-old brother lying lifeless in the road Wednesday night.
The boy’s father said Thursday he isn’t sure why his youngest son ran out of the family home in the 6300 block of North Cicero and into the street in the Edgebrook neighborhood, where he was hit by two cars.
“We are still trying to figure it out,” said a distraught Shahzad Khan.
He added, “Remember him and pray for him — and for us.”
Khan said he and his family are devout Muslims. The family has lived in their North Cicero home since late April, Khan said.
Taha Khan walked out the front door of his home around 9 p.m. as his father was talking to a neighbor in the backyard, according to police.
He walked into the street and was hit by a red Jeep that then fled the scene, police said. Taha was knocked into traffic and was then hit by a Volvo.
The driver of the Volvo stopped and performed CPR on the boy until an ambulance arrived and took him to St. Francis Health Center, where he died six and a half hours later, according to the Cook County medical examiner.
Ronnetta Newson, a Lyft driver, was parked nearby on Cicero and eating dinner in her car Wednesday night. She looked up when she heard screeching brakes and then a “boom.” She said she saw Taha hit by both the Jeep and the Volvo.
Newson said she saw the Jeep slow down but then keep on going. The driver of the Volvo got out and checked the boy’s pulse. He then began doing chest compressions, she said.
“All the while, he’s on the phone with 911,” Newson said. She said she saw the boy’s family come outside, including the older brother.
After the ambulance took the younger boy away, the Volvo driver sat down and drank some water. He’d been crying.
“Please don’t think this is your fault,” Newson said she told him.
Newson didn’t know Taha had died until told by a Sun-Times reporter.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said. “I feel so sorry for that baby.”
