Police are investigating after a 6-year-old boy was struck by a motorcycle in an East Harlem Park.
"I thought that in that moment when that the motorcycle hit my son, I thought that I was about to lose him," the victim’s mother, Nereida Diaz-Marin, said.
Her son, Henry Diaz-Marin, is in the hospital in critical condition. Around 6:30 p.m. Sunday night, the family was walking through Thomas Jefferson Park when the boy was struck.
"My husband saw that the motorcycle was coming toward us and he tried to pull my son back, but he didn't reach him," Nereida Diaz-Marin said.
The boy is suffering from a brain bleed and several skull fractures. Diaz-Marin says the motorcycle was speeding down a walkway meant for the pedestrians.
"There are a lot of motorized like scooters and bikes that run around here," resident Wanda Mulligan-Schell said. "It goes back to there aren't enough bike lanes accessible for the city. And it's something that they could think about doing. So that way the parks can just be for people, their dogs, the kids to have fun.”
As of Monday night, police were still looking for the operator of the motorcycle.
Authorities released images of the person, showing the blue motorcycle that struck the child.
Diaz-Marin says that the motorcycle driver did stop after the collision, but he did not identify himself or wait for police to arrive. She was in the hospital with her son on Monday.
"I saw him. He opened his eyes. That got me relieved honestly, because yesterday was the worst," Diaz-Marin said.