One of two children seriously hurt after riding without proper safety restraints in a car that crashed Monday night has died.
Two-year-old Devon "DJ" Morris was taken off life support and died at 4:05 p.m. Tuesday, according to his mother, Ocie Mills.
DJ and his brother, 5-year-old Stephen Russell, were reportedly not properly restrained when the silver car they were riding in, along with three young women collided with a gold SUV, which fled the scene, according to Sgt. Jason Menning of the Omaha Police Department.
Mills says she was at work when the crash happened. Her friends were babysitting the boys and on their way to the park.
"I got a phone call saying that my kids had gotten in a bad car accident and that I needed to get down to the hospital as soon as possible. I literally flew down there," Mills told 3 News Now outside of UNMC, hours after Morris was taken off life support.
"He was having CPR done from the scene all the way to the hospital and was unconscious the whole time so that prevented him from getting oxygen to his brain, which caused his brain to swell. That led to him being brain dead," said Mills.
Morris was at the hospital from Monday to Tuesday and was able to spend some time with her son before he died.
"I got to hold him the last few hours and he died in my arms. He took his last breath in my arms," said Mills. "It was hard saying good-bye but I had to do it. I had to let him be at peace. I couldn't let him suffer. So we had to pull the plug."
Mills said she bathed the toddler and changed him into a new outfit. She says she didn't want to see him in a body bag when she said good-bye.
"This is is so hard. My kids are all I have. I have no family in Omaha so my kids are everything," said Mills. "And DJ was just so much fun. He was all smiley. He was definitely handsome. Full of life."
Mills is also asking anyone who has information regarding the driver or one of the missing passengers of the gold SUV to contact police. She wants justice in her son's death.
"I don't understand how someone could hit a baby, or hit a car period with people inside and people in critical condition and leave. And the way he hit the car was just - he hit it hard," added Mills.
The older brother Stephen has a broken leg and femur and a fractured hip bone. Mills said he's scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday and was warned it could take several months for him to learn to walk again.
A GoFundMe page has been set up here.
