A heroic 10-year-old girl has died after saving two toddlers by pushing them out of the path of a SUV which then hit and killed her.
Kiera Larsen, aged 10, has been hailed as a hero after she moved two toddlers out of the way of a SUV in Lakeside, San Diego county.
Detectives are now trying to determine why the Mercedes SUV began rolling down the driveway where the three girls were playing.
‘She is truly a hero. She will forever be my kids’ guardian angel,’ the mother of the two girls, Alissa Jenkins, told local media. ‘She saved both my daughters’ lives.’
‘These are my two kids that I have and both of them could’ve been gone in an instant and she stepped in and took over and did what she knows best to do — and that’s to protect those around her.’
Kiera suffered extensive injuries during the incident.
She was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
California Highway Patrol officer Kevin Pearlstein said: ‘A child died heroically, I mean if you think about it, she sacrificed herself for another small child,’
‘We’re going to do an inspection on the vehicle, find out why this happened, find out if there was some sort of malfunction on the vehicle and go from there.’
