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Boy, 3, killed by neighbor's truck

He was playing in the road of the Riverview home park where he lived when he was hit.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published February 8, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Edward Francis Gould III is shown in a family photo, taken behind the family's trailer in Riverview. [Special to the Times]

RIVERVIEW - In the momentary turn of his mother's head, a 3-year-old boy died under the weight of his next-door neighbor's truck.

Edward Francis Gould III was pushing his black toy truck outside his family's rented mobile home Wednesday afternoon when a neighbor driving into the shaded community accidentally struck the blond-headed boy.

Gail Gould's screams shocked the quiet Alafia Riverwoods Mobile Home Park as she rushed to hold her oldest son's body, neighbors said.

Several neighbors called deputies. One gave the boy CPR. But when family friend William Walker got there and reached for the boy's pulse, he felt nothing.

"I knew there was nothing we could do," he said.

Gail Gould, a mother of three, had been chatting with a neighbor in her front yard by the Alafia River about 2:45 p.m. when she turned and hollered at her son from only a few feet away to get out of the street, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Moments later, her next-door neighbor Pete Dreydoppel, 52, crashed into the boy. The sight left the young mother hysterical while her 2-year-old daughter witnessed it all from nearby, said neighbor Sharon Stark, 40.

"She said, 'I know it's not your fault! I was hollering at him to get out of the street,' " park manager Corry Rodriguez, 28, recalled afterwards.

Named after his father, "Little Eddie" Gould loved fishing, cats, PlayStation and wrestling with his 6-year-old neighbor friend, Billy Walker, said Billy's sister Natasha Walker, 14.

Eddie was tan from all his outdoor play, she said. The haircut his dad gave him left the back of his head buzzed until just above his ears, where his blonde hair sprayed out.

"He was the light of his dad's eyes," said Tami Gonzalez, 39, whose husband employs Edward Gould Jr., 27, at a screen enclosure company.

As traffic homicide detectives took dozens of measurements at the scene, placing orange cones beside Eddie's shattered toy truck and examining Dreydoppel's Nissan truck, Gonzalez clutched a framed picture of Eddie taken on the edge of the river behind his house.

"He was just a boy, a dirty little boy," Gonzalez said with a slight smile.

The Goulds have lived in the mobile home park at 6521 Riverview Dr. for about a year, park managers Corry and Lindsay Rodriguez said. The family received eviction papers Wednesday morning before the crash, Gonzalez said.

The boy frequently played outside and neighbor Ronald Carter, 31, said he recognized the boy's mother's voice as she called out to him to be careful.

"I guess he didn't hear her this time," Carter said quietly as he sat in a lawn chair.

Dreydoppel was booked into jail hours later, but not in direct connection to the crash, which remains under investigation.

Deputies said they discovered two outstanding traffic-related warrants, including one for driving without a valid license.

Lindsay Rodriguez, 26, looked over the scene from the management office. Just behind the crime scene tape, a 5 mph sign reminded drivers to go slow.

Dreydoppel, she said, always kept his speed slower than that. "He came through here one day and said 5 miles per hour is too fast," Rodriguez said. "He loved them kids to death."

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

[Last modified February 8, 2007, 06:14:27]