With candles and balloons, a 10-year-old girl’s grieving family and friends met on Monday night at the Gwen Cherry Park in Miami-Dade County’s Gladeview neighborhood.
Peyton Williams and her 15-year-old brother were riding an e-bike together when a driver struck them on Sep. 9 at Northwest Seventh Avenue and 177 Street, according to deputies.
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies searched for the driver on Monday night. Peyton’s brother Willbrent survived and was at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Peyton died.
“He’s doing well,” said Shaniq, the children’s mother. “He’s in recovery right now. He’s up, he’s talking, he’s stable, and that’s it. We just fighting, we still day-by-day recovering.”
She said that the family has yet to tell the boy that his sister did not survive the crash.
“No, we didn’t tell him yet,” she said. “It’s going to be the trauma all over, like from the first time it happened because they were very close. They did everything together.”
Mourners remembered Peyton as a member of the Gwen Cherry Park Bulls cheer team, a youth sports program with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade.
“It’s like a spiritual feeling to know that they’re so loved and that so many people came forward just to show support for our family, for their mom,” said Katrina Kearse, the victim’s aunt.
On Sunday, deputies reported finding the Nissan Versa that they suspect struck and killed Peyton.
“Our hearts are broken ... 10 years was not long enough. Her life mattered. Her story matters. Her family needs our support,” Destiny Reeves wrote in a Support Now fundraising page.
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