A Leflore County woman has been charged with leaving the scene of the hit-and-run accident that killed a 10-year-old boy Wednesday evening.
On Thursday, the Sheriff's Department arrested Angela Williams, 42, of 32800 County Road 512, Lot 4, near Malouf Trailer Park.
Corderick Banks was riding his bike along Country Road 512, also called Malouf Road, near Country Ridge Apartments around 8 p.m. Wednesday when he was struck by what a 10-year-old who was with him described as a "white truck." Corderick died of his injuries later in the hour at Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
Sheriff Ricky Banks said investigators knew from pieces of the headlight, grill and other debris left at the scene that the vehicle in question was a Ford between the years of 1992 and '96, but that was all they had to go on.
"The other little boy hit the nail on the head," said Banks. "It was a white pickup."
The real break, though, came when Williams' family came to the Sheriff's Department to explain what had happened, Banks said. She was driving from her home near Malouf Trailer Park toward Humphrey Highway at the time of the accident and drove away in her confusion, he said.
"She had borrowed her brother's truck and when she brought it back it had damage to the front, and she told him … she didn't know what to do," said Banks.
The charge for leaving the scene of an accident will likely stand alone unless the ongoing investigation turns up contributing circumstances, Banks said.
"We're still investigating to see where she had been going, had she been drinking, had she been smoking, whatever," he said. "We've got some blood samples from her, and we're waiting for results from the State Crime Lab."
Corderick's mother, Ida Hicks, who called him her "spiritual baby," said he loved to ride bikes and used to sing along to the gospel music on his mother's radio. He loved "praising the Lord" and listening to gospel music, she said.
"Every time I turned my radio on to gospel music, he'd know the songs, and he'd sing right along with me."
Hicks says her son, always willing to help others, applied the words of those songs to his own life. "He loved helping older people," she said. "If they were putting their groceries in their car, he'd ask them, 'Do you need any help?'"
That charisma endeared Corderick to teachers at T.Y. Fleming and at East Elementary School, where he started this year.
East Principal Anita Ware said Corderick would emulate the teachers, using ways of speaking he heard from them and writing on the chalkboard when he was allowed. One of his role models was Lucy Page, who taught Corderick at T.Y. Fleming. Page, who now teaches at Leflore County High School, said Corderick was a warm, passionate student who stole hearts with his expressive personality. "He was with me almost every moment of the day," she said. "It got to the point where other teachers, when they saw me and I wasn't with him, would ask, 'Ms. Page where is your shadow today?'"
