12-year-old Rumzey Maatouk, days after sustaining injuries from an intentional hit-and-run.

DEARBORN – A local 12-year-old boy was intentionally hit by an on coming vehicle when he was trying to cross the street on his bicycle in an east Dearborn neighborhood.

Rumzey Maatouk was riding his bike with a friend near Oakman Elementary School on Thursday, June 4, around 7:00 p.m. and stopped at the stop sign at Chase Rd. and Gould Street, when he seen an oncoming vehicle approach the intersection. 

According to Maatouk, an Arab man in his 30s, driving a 2012 Black Dodge Charger with a busted tail light, shook his head at him and gave him the signal to cross the street. As Maatouk crossed, the man smiled at him and then abdrupty stepped on his gas pedal.

Maatouk was struck by the vehicle, forcing his body to slam on the pavement. The driver accelerated south on Chase rd and turned down an alley, fleeing the scene. 

Theresa Maatouk, the child’s mother, was quickly alerted of the incident by friends. The family lives about a block away from where the hit-and-run occurred.

Within minutes following the incident, paramedics arrived to the scene. They told Theresa that her son may have sustained injuries from the hips down.

“I was freaking out and didn’t know what to do,” Theresa Maatouk said. “Who leaves a child on the side of the road? You don’t run down an animal and leave them on the road, let alone a child.”

Maatouk was immediately taken to Children’s Hospital by the EMS. He was given X-rays, where doctors discovered that he had sustained a broken toe from the accident.

Maatouk was placed on crutches and has since suffered from swelling to his legs and feet. He finally returned to school on Tuesday, June 9 after spending several days recovering from the incident. 

Theresa said she is thankful that her son didn’t sustain any further injures; just two months prior, he was in the hospital for asthma and a heart condition. 

A few weeks later, a CT-scan revealed that Maatouk also had Chiari Malformation, a condition where the lower part of the brain pushes into a space normally occupied by the spinal cord. 

“The drive could’ve put my son into a heart attack,” Theresa said. “He could’ve had brain damage. A lot of different things could’ve potentially happened.” 

She’s hoping detectives will be able to identify the culprit who intentionally ran over her son, although there’s been lack of developments on the case. Dearborn Police were able to identify seven Black Dodge Chargers in the area, but have not been able to move in on a suspect.

She can’t fathom why someone would intentionally run over a child. She said often times, drivers will try to ‘scare’ children by acting like they are going to run them over, but then abruptly stop right before doing so.

 She believes that might have been a possibility with her son. 

“I’ve seen a lot of people do this, where they pretend they are going to hit them and then swerve away,” Theresa said. “I don’t know what the motive was behind this. [My son] said he could identify the person if he saw him again. He will never forget his face because of how he laughed at him and hit him. I would like this person to turn himself in. They know who they are and they need to do the right thing. You need to turn yourself in.”

She noted that careless driving has become all too common in Dearborn’s neighborhoods. As children roam the streets, ride bicycles and play sports, they are often met with distracted drivers. 

One day following Maatouk’s hit and run incident, a local teenage girl was also struck by a vehicle when she was crossing the street to go to school on Schaefer Rd. The Arab American News was told she sustained severe injuries and is still recovering at a local hospital. 

Theresa said she often witnesses drivers blow through stop signs in her neighborhood. Parents who are dropping off and picking up their children from local schools are guilty of disregarding traffic signals and signs as well.

“When students come out of school, the parents don’t even stop for the kids crossing the street,” Theresa said. “Drivers are not paying attention to what’s around them. They are busy on their phones and not seeing children playing in the streets.”

Theresa believes the city needs to construct speed bumps at stop signs that are near schools. She also believes the police department needs to install cameras at intersections to catch careless drivers in action.