OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — An Oakland woman was critically injured Thursday after police say she was hit by a car on 35th Avenue that had been taken and driven by two very young children.
Witnesses and surveillance footage from the area show a white sedan traveling at high speed along 35th Avenue before striking the woman, who was walking her dog at the time.
“It was loud,” witness Lavelle Shah-Marquis said, describing the crash. “I pray that she’s okay, but it was bad, it was bad,” he added.
According to Oakland police, the boys — brothers ages 7 and 4 — took their parents’ Toyota while the adults were asleep and drove away. The collision occurred several blocks from their home.
After the impact, authorities said the children were found outside the vehicle. The woman who was struck was left in critical condition.
“The two young boys laying on the ground here,” Shah-Marquis said, recalling what he saw moments after the crash.
The case has prompted difficult questions about accountability. “Unfortunately, I think these parents need to be held responsible and that was my main concern was these parents need to be held responsible. This is ridiculous,” Shah-Marquis said.
Steven Clark, a legal analyst and former prosecutor, said the circumstances are exceptionally rare. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s just such a one off,” Clark said. “The law doesn’t have an exact remedy for this.”
“The law doesn’t have an exact remedy for this,” he added. Clark said that while the act itself could be considered a crime, the age of the child involved makes criminal accountability unlikely. “It is a crime that the seven-year-old committed, but we’re not going to put a seven-year-old in juvenile hall,” Clark said.
Oakland police are questioning the parents and said they are cooperating with the investigation.
“What was the level of supervision of these kids? How did they get access to the vehicle?” Clark said. “I’ve seen that in other cases where you rely on social workers, not prosecutors.”
Clark said he believes a civil case is likely but criminal charges are not. “This isn’t like leaving a gun around for a kid. This is an automobile that we use every day, and this is the kind of thing that you’re used to just leaving your car keys out,” he said.
Experts also said responsibility should not be placed on the children because of their ages and developmental abilities.
“These kids are not capable, at this age, of understanding the consequences of what they did,” said Dr. Shivani Chmura, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist. “It’s like they can see that they push the first domino, but they cannot see any of the other ones after that that would fall.”
She said the children should be protected from blame. “I would recommend counseling for them. Otherwise, they could end up with very lifelong symptoms of shame,” Chmura said.
Calling the situation tragic, Chmura said, “My heart goes out to the whole situation. It’s tragic.”
ABC7 Eyewitness News reached out to Oakland police for an update on the woman’s condition.
The woman’s dog ran away after the crash, police say, and it was unclear Thursday whether the animal had been found.
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