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A heart-wrenching hit-and-run in Brooklyn on Thursday claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy, marking a second devastating blow for his family, who previously lost their eldest son to gun violence.
Young Zachariah Padilla is set to be laid to rest in white, beside his older brother Elijah Wright, who was tragically shot last year, their heartbroken mother shared with The Post.
“Why does God keep taking my children? Why not take me? Why them?” lamented Harmonie Wright, speaking from her home in Brownsville.
“This was a child, my child… my own flesh and blood. Now it’s over,” she mourned.
Elijah Wright, aged 21, lost his life last year after suffering five gunshot wounds, according to Harmonie. She chose not to divulge further details regarding her eldest son’s death.
Zachariah’s tragic death occurred Thursday morning just minutes after he and his mother left Brookdale Hospital.
The pair was getting the boy’s paperwork, including his immunization papers, in order to be in compliance for school.
Zachariah dashed into the street, where he was hit and then run over by a Ford SUV, which sped away from the scene of the tragedy and left the injured boy on the ground, cops and Wright said.
“We were going back home and now I’m hurt and not only did he hit my son … he hit him. I banged on the car … and then I got hit, too,” Wright said, crying at times.
“How do you run over a child? Something gotta be wrong with you because you ain’t gonna win. Know that we winning, know that you losing,” she continued, pledging justice for her son.
The boy was rushed back into the hospital, where he had just exited with his mother.
Doctors conducted chest compressions for 30 minutes while Zachariah bravely fought for his life before ultimately succumbing to his injuries.
“Zachariah, let me tell you what he said, he said, ‘Mother, God has a lot of children. He said ‘I’m an angel,’” Wright said proudly of her son.
“That was a boy they kept working on. They [didn’t] want to give up on him. They said we’ve seen trauma every day, but this one is something different and it’s breaking my heart. I just buried a child, my other child. This is hurtful.”
Wright has just one surviving son, Joseph, who was slightly older than Zachariah.
“My house sounds silent. There is no noise,” Wright said.
“It hurts. I’m a little disturbed right now, but God says, ‘I’ve got him’ and I’m gonna bury him in all white because he’s an angel.”
Wright pledged to pursue justice for little Zachariah, whose murderer is still on the loose.
“He was my last child. His name is Zachariah Padilla and we are gonna fight and we are gonna win,” she said.