By Laure Cioffi
Staff writer
Kaylin Crowley held two daisies in her hand and looked at the intersection near her home on Gass Avenue in the Brighton Heights section of Pittsburgh.
She was waiting for the television camera crews to disappear before heading down the street to place the flowers in the area where seven-year-old Raymond Michelotti was hit by a speeding Chevy Blazer while riding his bicycle to his grandmother's house Monday evening.
Neighbors say the area is usually quiet, but Monday night's events brought a parade of news trucks and curious drivers Tuesday afternoon.
The vehicle that struck Michelotti was being pursued by Bellevue and Avalon police, although investigators say officers from the two departments had abandoned the chase about seven blocks before the crash site. Gass Avenue is steeped by two large hills, and witnesses say the vehicle became airborne on both hills. It hit Raymond when it reached a plateau after the first hill, hurling the child more than 100 feet to his death.
Kaylin, 12, said she knew Raymond who often rode his bike around the neighborhood. She also knew the two juvenile passengers in the sport utility vehicle that hit the boy, a second-grade pupil at nearby John Morrow Elementary School. She said both boys in the vehicle knew the area well.
Her mother, Karen Hill, said the neighborhood is fairly safe; children often ride their bicycles there.
"This is basically a calm street," neighbor John Galuska said. "This is just a freak thing."
Galuska, one of the first people on the scene of the accident, said he was in his backyard pool when he heard the vehicle roaring down the street.
He said many have started using the street as a shortcut to Brighton Road.
Neighbor Scott Richert grew up on Beckham Avenue and now lives at the intersection where the accident occurred.
"They have to do something. Maybe place a sign that says slow at the top of the hill," he said.
One of the things Ronnie Annis has done is set out a can for donations at A.J.'s Place -- his convenience store and sandwich shop on Woods Run Road.
"It makes me angry. It could be one of our kids. It's senseless," Annis said.
Bright-eyed and inquisitive, Raymond was looking forward to visiting his father in Florida later this week, said the Rev. Robert Morris, vicar of All Saints Episcopal Church, which has also began a fund for Raymond's family.
"He was a little guy, but he was all boy," Morris said.