COVINGTON – A 7-year-old boy, apparently sitting in the parking lot of a strip mall where his parents’ restaurant resides, was run over by a pickup truck.
The incident happened Thursday morning in the parking lot of the Nord du Lac complex building.
The child, Bryant Sun, was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries. Onlookers say the parents, who were inside of the Golden Wok restaurant, are devastated.
Delivery driver Michael Thompson said he saw Bryant sitting behind the back wheel of a car on the driver’s side, when the pickup turned the corner into the spot where the boy was sitting.
“He was just sitting there playing,” Thompson said. “You know, a little kid in his own world.”
Thompson said he was on his way to warn the child to be careful, but he was too late.
“I went to honk my horn, but before I could do any of that, he had already made that turn into the adjoining parking spot and ran over the poor child," Thompson said.
Trey Jelks, another witness, said he heard yelling.
“My manager and I, we ran to see. I thought maybe it was a fight or something, but when we got over there, the boy had already been hit," he said.
A makeshift memorial is already outside of the restaurant and a sign, asking for prayers, was posted on the window of the business.
Thompson said the driver of the pickup, who was given a test for possible impairment and none was found, was upset upon learning he had struck a child.
“I said, ‘you hit this kid,’” Thompson said. “He said he thought he hit a curb or something and I said, ‘no, you hit this kid,’ so he was distraught. (The child’s) parents, mother and father who were working inside, they were ran out. We couldn’t console them.”
Heartbreak is spreading throughout the community because the child was well known by those at businesses nearby and by customers for his entertaining presence. One patron said he often played checkers with Bryant and that Bryant would often flirt with teenage girls who went in the store to study.
To help the Sun family pay for Bryant's funeral, visit this GoFundMe page organized by a close friend.