Boy dies a day after he's hit by car

By REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writer
Published December 11, 2007

TAMPA - The grieving grandmother of nine shouted from her driveway as the cars zoomed past. One roared. Another flew. The last revved its engine so loud she felt the vibration.

"Stop!" 58-year-old Noemi Gonzalez screamed Monday night, raising her fist at the tail lights.

Five hours earlier, Carlos Ramirez, the chubby-cheeked 9-year-old who loved math, video games and riding his bike, died in a hospital where doctors spent 24 hours trying to keep him alive.

Carlos, "Carlito" to his grandma, was riding his Mongoose bike Sunday afternoon when he was hit by a Mitsubishi at Flora Street and Thatcher Avenue.

Hillsborough sheriff's deputies are still investigating the accident and have not said whether speed was a factor. No one has been charged.

But those who live on the dimly lit residential streets west of Dale Mabry Highway assume the driver was going too fast - because so many drivers do in their neighborhood.

"That's what took my brother's life!" Krystal Bernier, 17, shouts at a car zooming by on a street posted 25 mph.

Sunday's accident happened about 4:45 p.m. The boy was eastbound on the south shoulder of Flora Street, and the driver of the 1995 Mitsubishi, Kevin Custodio II, 19, was driving west on Flora.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said Carlos turned across Flora Street. Custodio, she said, hit his brakes and swerved, but Carlos was still injured.

Custodio could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Carlos died at 4 p.m. Monday at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

A third-grader at Crestwood Elementary, he loved to rub his mother's tired feet, kiss his grandmother's cheeks and fish with his uncle. Though colicky as a baby, he grew into a happy child who aspired to be a boxer, said his mother, Jeannie Garrick, 35.

For Christmas, Carlos wanted walkie-talkies, Transformers and the MP3 player he already knew he was getting.

The family didn't know what they would do with his Christmas gifts. But on Monday night, they talked about circulating a petition for their own Christmas gift: speed bumps.

As Garrick wiped her eyes to go inside, Gonzalez shooed some of Carlos' friends from the darkened street.

"This is like a bad nightmare," she said.

[Last modified December 11, 2007, 00:01:56]