Crash into Kearns kids appears intentional

KEARNS — It was a call that no mother ever wants to get.

"My 15-year-old called and was screaming, 'Tommy got hit! Tommy got hit!' I asked where and he said, 'Down by the busy street,' " said Rina Perez.

Less than five minutes later, Perez was pulling up to the area near 5700 South and 4015 West. She walked past a man with no shirt who was lying in the road moaning in pain. He had just been driving a car that plowed into several groups of junior high school students, including her son. She walked past the man's car and about 30 feet beyond that found her son Tomas, lying in the road, conscious but unable to move.

A total of six children were hit, and at least another four had to dive out of the way, some literally jumping over fences to avoid the car.

But Tomas, 13, and his friend Josue Ramirez, who turns 13 today, were sitting on Perez's front porch Thursday afternoon after being released from the hospital. Both boys are still sore, and evidence of the crash is all over their faces, knees, arms and legs.

Now many of the victims, none of whom were kept in hospitals, and their families, as well as law enforcers, want to know why a man would intentionally plow into a group of children with his car. The victims' names were not released because law enforcers do not identify minors involved in accidents.

The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office believes the crash was intentional based on evidence collected at the scene, as well as interviews with the children involved in the accident, other witnesses and the driver himself, 50-year-old Luka Wall Kang, said sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson.

About 3 p.m. Wednesday, more than a dozen students, all 12 to 15 years old, were walking home from school.

Lorenzo Perez, 15, spotted his little brother from across the street just as the car was approaching. The vehicle hit two kids and slowed down, he said. Then the driver apparently hit the accelerator and the car continued toward the other children, including Tomas Perez and Ramirez, said Lorenzo Perez.

Tomas Perez and Ramirez said they never heard the car coming up from behind them. Ramirez said he remembered "something hard hit my leg," and he was then hammered to the ground, where he hit his head and was knocked unconscious. On Thursday, Ramirez had a large scab across his entire forehead.

"I was on the sidewalk. I didn't think someone would drive on the sidewalk," he said.

Tomas Perez was knocked onto the hood of the car. The vehicle continued for another 200 feet before hitting a residential stone wall, causing the car to flip onto its roof. As the car was turning over, Perez was tossed 30 to 40 feet.

"The car was on me. I grabbed onto the side," he said Thursday.