Classmates see boy killed on bike

Instead of savoring a basketball victory with him, the smiling sixth-grader's stunned friends mourned him Friday.

By BABITA PERSAUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 8, 2000

PLANT CITY -- Sixth-grader Cedrick Harrell was supposed to be playing his saxophone Friday at a band competition. He also was supposed to be basking in basketball glory.

The night before, the Marshall Middle School Dragons, with Cedrick as a point guard, beat the Turkey Creek Gobblers, 35-26. It was his team's first victory all season.

"We won the game," said teammate Robert Williams, 14. "And he wasn't here to help us celebrate."

At 8:25 a.m. Friday, heading to school on his blue Huffy bike, 11-year-old Cedrick was killed by a Chevrolet flatbed truck driven by Eugene Robinson, a 46-year-old with a record of driver violations. Cedrick and his bike were carried along Laura Street 126 feet. He died about four blocks from home.

Nearly a dozen children saw the accident, and more came upon the scene while walking to school.

"I saw the bike, and I saw him on the ground," said 13-year-old Aaron Robinson. "I was scared. You know when you're so upset, you can hardly see? That's how I was."

He saw a woman check his friend's pulse.

"She said he was dead. . . . I started to cry," recalled Aaron, who lives on the street where Cedrick died.

An investigation of the accident is continuing.

In January 1999, Robinson was charged with driving with a suspended or revoked license and resisting arrest without violence. He pleaded guilty and served less than a month in jail.

In 1992, he was charged with driving without a valid license. He was released after spending a day in jail. That charge is not listed in traffic court records.

Cedrick lived on Louisiana Street, about five blocks from school, and often bicycled to school.

"He was a real good little boy, a good student," said Sarah Governor, Marshall Middle principal. "Never a discipline problem."

Cedrick ran track and was the shortest member on the basketball team. But he had the biggest smile.

"He was always smiles," said Robert Williams.

Now, Robert and others are trying to cope with the loss.

"I didn't believe he was dead at first," said Robert. Then he saw the basketball coach crying. "I knew it was true."

Cedrick was the only son of David and Irene Harrell, who also have two daughters.

Students were counseled by the school system's crisis team and two neighborhood ministers. Administrators also visited all the sixth-grade classrooms, and some students expressed their feelings in writing. About 50 students left, not being able to make it through the day, said Linda Cobbe, school spokeswoman.

Robert Williams was one of the students who left. A minister had told him and the other students to think of a garden with good flowers and not-so-good flowers. God came along and picked a good flower, the minister said. That was Cedrick.

"I think about that," Robert said. "And it makes me feel a little better."

- Staff writers Richard Danielson, Sara Schweitzer and Graham Brink contributed to this report.

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