Lawless ATV drivers run over middle school children on bike path in DC, boy seriously injured

A child in Northwest Washington, DC was hospitalized over the weekend after a group driving dirt bikes and ATVs through the streets ran over a group of middle school children. Police are searching for a man who had been driving a lime-green and white ATV.

Just before 7 pm on Saturday, a group of middle schoolers was riding bikes and scooters in the bike lane on 14th Street. Police said a group of men on dirt bikes and ATVs ran the group of children over near DC's Meridian Hill Park.

Per ABC 7, witnesses said that the group on the vehicles had been popping wheelies and racing up the street and appeared to be trying to bully the children off of the road before they were hit. 

A witness who saw the moment a child was struck, Nkandu Yumbe, said, "I was getting to the intersection of my house, and I just saw a kid fly, just like he was hit." She said that a car behind the group swerved, and that a few riders stopped briefly but fled the scene within seconds. She said, "When I got there, there was a child slanted down, and his face was scraped on the concrete."

The child who was seriously injured in the incident was identified by his family as 10-year-old Jahari Alford. He is described as a social butterfly who loves his family, friends, sports, and riding his bike. He was taken to the hospital in what his family described as a fragile state. 

Yumbe said of another child at the scene, "His other friend, Ayden, is wailing as I’ve never seen a human wail before, even in a funeral situation. He's seeing his friend, whom I didn't know was alive or not at the moment." Police said that 12-year-old Ayden was also injured, but not as badly as Alford. 

Briyonna Alford, the mother of the 10-year-old seriously injured, said she was informed of what happened when one of the children Facetimed her from the scene. She recounted, "Them screaming his name trying to see if he was conscious or not. It was heartbreaking with me at home and him on 14th Street."

Alford suffered head, neck, and spinal injuries from the crash, and underwent surgery on Saturday night, his family said. He has been disoriented and in severe pain, but his condition has improved and is no longer in critical condition. His family said the child has been begging to go home, but they are awaiting more tests and X-rays. 

"People don’t have sympathy for kids anymore," Alford said. "I don’t understand how you just leave the scene and not try to help my child."

Yumbe expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "They hit the kid, mistakes happened. The real crime, and I don't use that word lightly, is seeing the state of that child on the ground and walking away."