Earlier in the day, 5-year-old Tyrell Elliot's father and other relatives gathered at the hit and run scene where his son's life was taken. They prayed for him and for his mother Dana Reynolds, who remains in critical condition at a local hospital.
"That's my nephew, I miss him. I miss him. He was just a baby, just 5-years-old," Valerie Shirer said.
Police say the mother and son were hit and dragged down the street at Windrim and Lindley just before 2:00 a.m.
Hours after the accident, a coloring book, crayons, and the little boy's shorts still littered the roadway.
"The mother was holding her child in her arms, she was crossing the street from the east side of the street to west side here when she was struck on her right side," Charles Phillips of the Philadelphia Police Department said.
The mother was taken to Eistein Hospital.
Police quickly determined the vehicle involved was a yellow cab. A few hours later they found it a few blocks away at 6th and Lindley, but the driver was nowhere to be found.
Family members say Tyrell was your typical young child, full of life and always on the move.
"That was my little buddy, he was active. He liked church. He played the tambourine. He sang in choir, he liked to dance," Frank Dorsey said.
"We called him Happy Feet, because his feet were always so happy. He liked to break dance. He'd be all over the floor, running back and forth in the house," Valerie said.
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