Strangers’ Efforts Fail to Save Boy

Three strangers banded together to save the life of a critically wounded 2-year-old boy in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon, but their heroics were not enough for Alejandro Diaz.

Alejandro was playing in an apartment building parking lot when he stumbled into the path of a Ford Tempo pulling in about 1:45 p.m.

Jose Daniel Pinion Molina, 32, told police he was pulling into a parking stall at the Village Meadows apartments at 629 W. Vermont Ave. when the boy started to run alongside the car. The boy dropped from sight. Then Molina felt a bump underneath his wheel, said Sgt. Phil Lock of the Anaheim Police Department.

Molina jumped out and found Alejandro’s limp, bleeding body underneath the rear of the car, just as the boy’s father raced outside. Octavio Diaz and his son were in Anaheim visiting other residents in the apartment complex Sunday afternoon, and didn’t know Molina, police said.

The two men carried the unconscious boy to Molina’s car and raced toward Western Medical Center-Anaheim with Octavio Diaz behind the wheel, Lock said.

As they sped south down Harbor Boulevard, Diaz ran a red light while turning left onto Ball Road and collided with another car in the intersection, police said.

Molina climbed out of the disabled Ford and, seeing that no one was hurt, flagged down a passing motorist and pleaded for a ride to the hospital.

The driver, who was not identified, agreed to take Molina, Octavio Diaz and the wounded boy to the emergency room, but they arrived too late. Alejandro Diaz was pronounced dead within minutes, police said.

No arrests were made or citations issued, but the incident is still under investigation, Lock said.

Within the last month, two other Orange County children playing in parking lots or near driveways have been killed by cars.