Driver Is Killed by Mob of Youths After Hitting Girl

A man who got out of his car to check on an 11-year-old girl he had just hit was beaten by a mob of teen-agers, robbed and shot to death, witnesses said.

Victoria Williams, who was bruised but not seriously hurt, had darted into the path of Charles Bell’s car Tuesday evening as she ran to watch a fight brewing across the street, the witnesses said.

Police initially suspected that the mob was motivated by revenge, but later said the youths were after money, taking advantage of an easy target.

No arrests had been made.

Bell, 44, who lived and worked in the area, had been in a grocery store on an errand for his mother.

“It was just unbelievable,” Bell’s mother, Eva Mae Knight, told WTVJ-TV. “When he left for the store he said, ‘Momma, I’ll be right back,’ and the next news I hear is that my son had been shot.”

The girl, who was treated at a hospital and released, recalled looking up to see Bell and hearing him ask if she was OK. Then she heard gunfire.

“That could have really been my dad or my uncle or anybody in my family,” the girl’s mother, Felicia Williams, told the TV station. “I mean, if my brother gets out after hitting a kid I wouldn’t want anybody to hurt him that way.”

“You could hear his brakes,” a witness, Brenda Jones, told the Miami Herald. “He tried his best not to hit the child.”

Another witness, Lisa Blatiman, told the paper: “That child got right up. They shouldn’t have beat the man. It wasn’t his fault. They say the man was trying to explain what happened. They didn’t even want to listen to the man.”

Bell worked at a funeral home, where co-workers described him as loving and humorous.

“He came to us when he was in 12th grade, and he’s been here ever since,” said the Rev. Al Mozell, staff chaplain. “They are still crying around here, that is how much we loved him.”