Neighbors recall moment young girl was hit by car while riding bike in north Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — Channel 9 is asking if a driver will face more charges for hitting and killing an eight-year-old girl who was riding her bicycle in north Charlotte.

The incident happened Saturday evening on Monmouth Drive, just north of Interstate 85.

We talked to witnesses and learned a group of girls always bike in the area where the crash took place. Just feet away from a memorial for Nyomi Summers, neighbors told us this was a preventable crash, not an accident.

Summers was like many little girls her age. She lived in a Derita Woods neighborhood and loved to ride her bike to Nicole Cherry’s house to play with her friends.

On Saturday Cherry says her neighbor was having a get-together when one of their family members started to drive off.

“They was having something for the grandmother, it was packed on both sides of the street,” Cherry said. “The next thing you know, you see him coming.”

Doorbell camera videos show the moments she’s describing.

You can hear the engine revving, then the car speed up significantly.

“The other two kids got out the street. Nyomi wasn’t quick enough with her little legs. She had eyes on her. She wasn’t unattended. She did not run in front of no car,” said Cherry. “That car hit her like she was an animal. It kept going until he probably got a phone call saying he hit that baby.”

Another neighbor didn’t want to go on camera, but says she saw the whole thing from somewhere in the video we obtained.

“You gunned it down the street. You were on the wrong side. That baby play out here every day,” she said. “You were on the wrong side, you hit that baby and kept going. You didn’t stop, you didn’t remain on scene. They had to call you to tell you to come back.”

The neighbor said it hurts because she was a child.

“She didn’t have to lose her life because of a reckless driver,” she said. “That could have been my niece, my little cousin, that could have been anybody.”

Police say the driver of the Chrysler 300 was 23-year-old Khaliyal Burney. He’s charged with driving while license revoked, no insurance, failure to register, and fictitious registration.

A judge gave him a $1,000 unsecured bond in court Monday. He’s still in jail.

We’re asking police if they plan to charge him for the crash itself.

VIDEO: Mother recalls moment she learned her son had been shot at north Charlotte pool party