“It sounded like a bomb went off,” Joshua Pate said, after a truck crashed into the side of his home in Louisville, Kentucky Friday afternoon. The alleged driver? A young girl, reported to be 10 or 11 years old. Perhaps more startling than the demolition was the girl’s reported explanation to police. Pate said he overheard the girl talking to an officer who responded to the scene.
“He couldn’t believe what she said,” Pate told WDRB. “H was like ‘Excuse me?’ And she said, ‘I wanted to kill people.’ And he said ‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’ And she said, ‘I wanted to kill people.”
The girl’s family says she is autistic. Her grandmother believes she may have been influenced by a cartoon where a character had stolen a car. The family had reportedly been hiding the car keys from her, because she had previously tried to take them. It’s unclear how she got the keys this time.
Kristina Bryan is asking that very question, after her car was hit just before the truck hit the Pates’ home. She was driving in the neighborhood when the girl allegedly plowed into her car, demolishing it and causing it to spin several times.
“Where was the parents when this little girl even got into the car?” Bryan asked. “How did this little girl even get access to the keys?”
Bryan reportedly suffered minor injuries.
Pate said he forgives the girl. “All we want is an apology from the family, pretty much,” he said. “We haven’t heard from them and haven’t heard from anybody.”
Luckily, everyone in the house was okay, including the five children who were in the living room at the time.
“The loveseat slid around and made kind of like a barrier,” Pate explained. “The back of it is kind of high and I think the kids just slid with the loveseat.”
The Pates are renting the house, but will have to vacate for a month or more while repairs are completed. Fortunately, the Red Cross is helping them.
Both the Pates and Bryan are considering legal action against the girl’s family.
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