Left inset: Ethan Turner (KSAZ/YouTube). Right inset: Glenn Noordhof (Pinal County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Arizona hospital where Ethan Turner remains on a ventilator, fighting for his life after allegedly being struck by Glenn Noordhof (KSAZ/YouTube).
An Arizona pickup truck driver is accused of plowing into 11-year-old Ethan Turner as the boy crossed a street on his push scooter, leaving him critically injured on the hot pavement, according to his family and friends.
Ethan Turner has been on a ventilator in a Pinal County hospital after being struck by 46-year-old Gloenn Noordhof near Ethan’s home in San Tan Valley, according to his mom. She told local Fox affiliate KSAZ that the hit-and-run happened last week and Noordhof appeared to plow into Ethan “without pushing on his brakes.”
A GoFundMe created to support Ethan’s family described the alleged hit-and-run in blunt terms: “The driver fled the scene like a coward leaving Ethan lying there on the burning asphalt screaming in pain.”
According to the fundraiser, Ethan is “currently in a medically induced coma due to the very extensive injuries he suffered.” The page says he is expected to “pull through,” but his recovery will likely involve multiple procedures, surgeries and “a bit of long-term care.”
Ethan’s mother, Tyra Turner, said she rushed to the scene on Monday, Aug. 10, and arrived to the sound of “blood-curdling screams you never want to hear your child make, ever,” while paramedics worked to help her son.
“Yesterday was the first time I got to see any signs of Ethan in there,” Turner told KSAZ, speaking about her son’s condition in the hospital. “He was able to give me a slight nod and squeeze my hand … He’s not been able to say anything to me.”
Turner also voiced outrage over the allegation that Glenn Noordhof left the crash scene. “If you hit a dog … people stop. You know, the fact that you hit a child, my child, and then left him on the road … I am extremely angry,” she said.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office said investigators used license plate cameras to locate Noordhof and take him into custody. He was booked on suspicion of leaving the scene of an injury crash.
“Ethan didn’t ask for this, he didn’t ask to be hit by a car,” the GoFundMe says. “He didn’t ask for a grown man to leave him to die.”
Turner added, “It’s my child and my child is going to suffer. And this is traumatic. He’s gonna have to live with this for the rest of his life.”
The post Little boy riding push scooter gets ‘barreled into’ by pickup driver who left the child ‘on the burning asphalt’ as his mom heard ‘blood-curdling screams’: Family first appeared on Law & Crime.
