The 9-year-old Florida boy who was killed after he reportedly crawled under a school bus to retrieve a football was a cancer survivor who had “been through a lot” in his short life, his family revealed during a candlelight vigil Wednesday.
A group of about 100 relatives and community members gathered outside the east Orlando apartment building where Elyas Marshall-Rodriguez was run over by his school bus moments after being dropped off Tuesday afternoon.
Trenae Gayle, the boy’s cousin, said the 9-year-old had gone into remission after being diagnosed with leukemia at age two, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
“He’s been through a lot in his life, so for this to happen is like a backbone embedded in our hearts,” Gayle said.
Gayle described the youngster as a loving and cheerful boy.
Elyas Marshall-Rodriguez, a 9-year-old childhood cancer survivor, was killed by a school bus on Tuesday. Sincerely the Marshall-Rodriguez family
“He was one of those kids, you can’t see him sad,” the cousin told the newspaper.
“He’ll pick you up. He’s very protective of his siblings. He worships his mother – every morning, he wakes her up. Makes both of them coffee, sometimes hot chocolate,” she said.
Marshall-Rodriguez’s aunt told Fox 35 Orlando on Wednesday that the boy had ducked under the school bus to retrieve a football, but Gayle reportedly said during the vigil that no family members witnessed it. He said that Elyas was an avid teenage football player and dreamed of playing in the NFL when he grew up.
Elyas attended third grade at nearby Lawton Childes Elementary School, where he had many friends. He is also well known and liked in his community.
“He likes to be around people. He likes to be outside,” said Gayle. “He is well known in the area. A lot of parents love him, let him come.”
“We can already feel the transition in the house. It will be very difficult. “We just have to take it day by day,” the grieving cousin reportedly added.
Elyas was attacked after crawling under the school bus to pick up a dropped football, according to his aunt. WOFL
Just before 4 p.m. Tuesday, Elyas got off his school bus in the Waterford East Apartments parking lot, the last student to be dropped off that day, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
But moments later, the third-grader ran back to the vehicle and crawled under it, oblivious to the 54-year-old bus driver who was moving the bus, causing the rear tire to hit the boy, killing him, officials said.
There were no other children on the bus at the time, and the veteran bus driver remained at the scene to be interviewed by troopers.
Elyas is survived by his mother and two siblings, one of whom has autism and is legally blind, according to a description of a GoFundMe campaign launched by Gayle to help pay for his cousin’s funeral and the family’s living expenses.
As of Thursday, more than $17,000 had been raised.
“His loss is truly unbearable and undeserved,” the cousin wrote. “My aunt will never be the same after this tragedy.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
