Family Mourning After Autistic 4 Year Old Was Fatally Struck By A Vehicle Following His Brothers Funeral

A 4-year-old child with autism lost his life by getting struck by a truck moments after leaving his older brothers funeral in New York.

On August 20, Michael McDonald had just left his 18-year-old son, Tysheem McDonald’s, funeral. His family was outside in front of their home on 147th Street when his younger son Domantea McDonald, 4, got loose from his mother’s grasp. The toddler ran out into the street where he was hit by a Toyota RAV4.

“They said don’t move him, so I was keeping him on the floor, trying to keep him calm. His eyes were wide open. He was trying to get up. We held him there for however long it took for the Fire Department to get here,” Michael recalled.

“There’s nothing inside me. There’s nothing. I’m empty,’’ Michael McDonald told reporters. “I just came from burying my older son. Domantea was only here for a split second to see me. … He wasn’t supposed to leave the world like that,” the hurt dad said.

Tysheem was shot and killed 2 weeks prior, and police suspect it was gang related.

“Tysheem lived in the streets. I accepted it. That was my son. I couldn’t tell him nothing. His mother couldn’t tell him, his uncles couldn’t tell him. He wanted to be his own man,” the dad said. “But he loved his little brother. He only met him a handful of times, and Domantea was very autistic, but when he would see Tysheem, he would go to him. He wouldn’t go to anybody else, but when he saw his big brother, he went to him.”

The 4-year-old sustained severe head trauma and internal injuries. unfortunately, He was pronounced dead at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.