LANCASTER, S.C. — Five-year-old Ja'Marie Patterson was supposed to walk into McDonald Green Elementary school Monday morning carrying his new Mario backpack.
Instead, Channel 9 spoke to his aunt, Tiffany Jones, who stood outside the family home in Lancaster, hugging the backpack in her arms.
"He was so excited about starting school," she said. "He wanted to be a policeman when he got older."
The boy's mother asked Jones if she would go to the school Monday. She did. She took pictures of his teachers, hugged them, posed with his backpack and saw the special first-day gift with the little boy's name on it that he would have received and taken home.
"We just need prayer. We don't have any answers," Jones said.
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Ja'Marie and his 10-year-old brother, Ja'Shawn, were in a sport utility vehicle with their father, Lonnie Patterson, 34, just before 1 p.m. Thursday when troopers said Patterson was driving drunk on Flat Rock Road near Heath Springs.
Troopers said Patterson swerved off the road and the SUV struck a utility pole, flipped and then hit a tree.
Troopers marked the long path where the SUV left the road and traveled through someone's yard.
Patterson is charged with one count of felony DUI causing death and one count of felony DUI causing great bodily injury.
Jones said Patterson and his sons had been on their way home from seeing their grandparents in Camden when the crash occurred. She never expected anything like this could happen.
She didn't know where Patterson might have been drinking before getting into the SUV with his two children.
"He loved his kids. He just made a mistake, a costly mistake, that he's going to have to deal with the rest of his life," Jones said.
"We are angry at him for his decision to drive, but we don't hate him," Jones said.
The two children were buckled in and were not ejected from the car. Troopers have not said how fast Patterson was going or released his blood-alcohol level.
Ja'Shawn suffered internal injuries and is still in a Columbia hospital. His mother is there with him.
The funeral for Ja'Marie will be Saturday at Crawford Funeral Home.
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