HOUSTON — A local family is grieving their loved one after he was fatally hit by a 12-year-old girl in the driver's seat of her father's SUV.
Houston police say Enrique Vasquez, 46, was walking his dog inside of his Galleria-area apartment complex on Thursday around 4:30 p.m. when he was struck by the SUV.
He and his dog were both killed in the accident.
“Angry," said Fernando Vasquez, the brother of the victim. "I don’t know. Sometimes I stand inside, I’m waiting for my brother [to come], I want to open the door. But that won’t happen [any] more.”
Police say the girl behind the wheel applied too much pressure to the gas and had been allowed to drive the vehicle by her father. They say another child was also in the car.
The girl's father, Tomas Mejia Tol, 42, has been charged with negligent homicide and child endangerment.
"I try to understand, but I can’t," Fernando said. "Why did he do that?”
Fernando Vasquez says his brother, Enrique, was not married and did not have any children but loved his dogs.
“He’s nice to everybody, he never did nothing bad," Fernando said. "Only work. He comes and walks his dogs."
Fernando says his brother was originally from Guerrero, Mexico and worked as a bar back at Boots 'N Shoots in downtown Houston.
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