Driver Who Ran Over 9YO Girl in Her Front Yard Surrenders, Claims Innocence

CNN reports that Gabriel Fordham has turned himself in to the police, in relation to an incident that occurred last Friday. At the time, he was driving a black sedan, which hit a stop sign and then careened onto the lawn of a house in Lithonia, Georgia. Before smashing into the side of the house, it hit one of the two kids playing outside: LaDerihanna Holmes, 9.

Surveillance video captured on the family’s security camera and released to the public after the accident showed the driver get out of the car and making a run for it on foot. Not once does he turn back to look on the girl he had pinned down between the car and the house, let alone stop to see if she’s still breathing.

LaDerihanna was admitted to the hospital in critical condition, but her status has since been updated to improving. She will be ok, but she has a long road to a full recovery, her mother tells CNN in an interview you can also find at the bottom of the page.

Fordham’s attorney claims that his client was just as much a victim as the little girl because, at the time, he was fighting off a carjacker. This should also serve as an explanation for the crash and, possibly, for the fact that he fled.

“Someone jumped in his vehicle with a pistol, put the gun to his face, made him drive, and the whole time my client was driving, he was kind of directing the path,” the attorney says. “[Fordham is] apologetic and he wants to help this family get closure to this issue.”

But here’s the thing: in the footage made available to the press, you see no other man (or woman) emerge from the wrecked car than Fordham. Had he been fighting off a carjacker, chances are someone would have seen him or her.

For the time being, Fordham has been charged with hit and run, serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane, and failure to stop at a stop sign.