DETROIT – A Detroit family is grieving after 9-year-old Fatoumata Sadio Diallo was killed Friday night near Tireman and the Southfield Freeway.
Family members said they were driving to celebrate Ramadan when their vehicle was struck at the intersection of Tireman Avenue and the Southfield Freeway service drive.
“It was like when the impossible becomes possible. when something that you couldn’t even imagine happens right at your car.”
Aaisha Bah, Fatoumata’s cousin, described trying to wake her cousin in the backseat and realizing something was terribly wrong.
“I looked at the backseat and I saw my cousin and I was trying to wake her up because I thought she was sleeping,” she recalled. “I didn’t know what was happening.”
Bah said her 15-year-old daughter, her 9-year-old cousin and a friend were in the car. Fatoumata died that night.
“Getting to the hospital, that’s when I heard the officer say my cousin didn’t make it,” Bah said.
Bah described Fatoumata as talented and unforgettable.
“She was a little girl with talent, exceptional talent,” Bah said. “When you meet her, you would remember her for the rest of your life.”
Prosecutors say 19-year-old Gregory Bester Louis Austin was driving about 70 mph in a 30-mph zone on the Southfield Freeway service drive and ran a red light at Tireman Avenue.
Bah said her daughter and a friend suffered serious injuries and her daughter remains hospitalized after a recent transfer to another floor.
“Financially, it’s very difficult because we don’t know what those bills will be.”
Austin faces criminal charges. He was arraigned from his hospital bed on Tuesday; bond was set at $50,000.
“It will not bring my cousin back, but I pray that along the way that driver will learn. My auntie doesn’t have a daughter anymore and I don’t have my little cousin anymore,” Bah said. “I may have many other people but that girl was a special girl.”
Bah said the family is grateful someone has been charged but that a prosecution cannot bring Fatoumata back.
A friend of the family started a GoFundMe to help cover medical and funeral expenses. You can donate here.