3-Year-Old Boy Fatally Hurt While Crossing the Street

A 3-year-old Fullerton boy who apparently left his yard to try out a new tricycle died early Sunday after being hit by a car in the 500 block of South Lemon Street. Jonathan Nichitean was pronounced dead at UC Irvine Medical Center just after midnight from major head, neck and chest injuries suffered when he was hit by a car while walking alone across the street about 4:30 p.m., police said.

The boy had left his house in the 300 block of East Ash Avenue and wandered to the center divider of South Lemon Street before making a dash across the street.

The driver of a van stopped but another driver, who could not see the boy because of the van, hit him in the slow lane, police said.

The driver of the car that hit the boy, Benjamin Rojas Gutierrez, 27, of Fullerton, was not injured and the incident remains under investigation, police said.

The boy’s uncle, Aurel Antimie, said Sunday night that Jonathan was playing with a group of children, including his four brothers and sisters, in his yard. He was being supervised by the property landlord.

He slipped away, however, apparently to try out a new tricycle that his father had given him the week before. At some point, he left his tricycle and tried to cross the street to Lemon Park, Antimie said.

“He crossed half the road, realized there was a fence (in the middle), then tried to go back,” Antimie said.

Antimie said the family had just moved to Fullerton two months ago from New York.