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Witness talks about trying to save Jacksonville boy hit by car driven by his grandmother

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Teddy bears now sit outside the apartment complex where 6-year-old Luis Ostolaza Sota Jr. was hit and killed by an SUV.

Witnesses say the boy’s grandmother was driving, when she hit the gas and accidentally ran right over him.

Witnesses tell us they tried to help the boy before rescue crews arrived.

“As I’m calling them, I’m trying to see if he has a pulse, trying to talk to the kid, tried to ask him if he could squeeze my hand if he could hear me. There was no response at all,” witness Rawad Hijazi said.

He said he could hear the boy’s grandmother screaming.

“I could see the marks of the tire all over him,” Hijazi said.

We reached out to kidsandcars.org.

They say deaths like this have increased over the past decade.

Florida numbers show that in 2015, there were eight deaths for children younger than 14 who were run over.

In 2016, there were 13.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said this is still an active investigation.