Senior Walsall police officer pays emotional tribute to 'heroic' people who tried to save life of seven-year-old girl
A senior Walsall police officer has paid tribute to "heroic" emergency services and members of the public who tried to save the life of a seven-year-old girl who died yesterday following a suspected hit-and-run.
Chief Superintendent Phil Dolby told the Express & Star that emergency services received "repeated calls" at around 7pm that a "young girl had been knocked over by a motorbike."
He said that upon arrival, emergency services found the incident had been a "non-stop" meaning that the rider of the offending motorbike had allegedly failed to stop and ridden off.
Chief Supt. Dolby said: "The emergency services did their best, an absolutely heroic job to try, helped by members of the public, but unfortunately, the seven year old girl has passed away during the night through those injuries that were sustained.
"I'm not being untruthful when I say that in the police station behind me right now, it is a very, very heavy mood, but what that does do is make us determined to do the best job we possibly can around this.
"So within two hours of the offence happening, we had we had a suspect in custody."
A 14-year-old boy was arrested and was being questioned on Friday.
Chief Supt. Dolby also took the opportunity to renew the West Midlands Police appeal for help in finding the bike involved in the incident, revealing that the seven-year-old girl was pushing along her scooter when she was hit by the bike.
"We do not yet have the bike, so there is somebody out there who knows where that bike is and they think it's okay to take that vehicle, which has just been involved in killing needlessly a seven-year-old child, who was doing nothing wrong and was pushing along on her scooter and is helping to hide that bike from us.
"I would ask her a community response to help us find that bike.
"Do the right thing - this isn't time to be messing around with whether you like the police or not as a seven-year-old girl got killed needlessly."
He admitted to having a "little cry" last night following the incident and said his heart goes out to all involved.
"It's not just the family who our hearts absolutely go out to.
"I mean, I had a little cry last night genuinely but it's also there were young kids, really young primary school kids that also witnessed this happening.
"It's a tragedy that just has lots of ramifications to it and it's also needless and preventable," he continued.
