Thirteen-year-old Kira Goddard was sitting on her stoop at 2025 Pacific Street with some friends when she noticed an SUV driving erratically.
The driver, Sean Lewis, had a stab wound in the torso and was reversing wildly down the street, hitting three cars in his wake.
As the SUV bounded down the street toward them, Goddard yelled out for everyone to run, and got them out of the way before the car slammed into her house, killing both her and the driver.
“She told us to run for our lives, and she didn’t get a chance to run for hers,” her friend Alexia told the New York Times.
"I was running too fast. I didn't see the car hit her," Kira's sister, Tanisha Harewood, told the Wall Street Journal. "I turned around and I saw her shorts. She was already dead."
Friends and family are calling Goddard a hero for warning others of danger at the risk of her own life.
"She saved them all," Lyn Joseph, 36, told the Daily News. "She said, 'Run, run,' to all the other kids, because she saw the car coming. And when she went to move out of the way it was too late."
Kira died at the scene, and Lewis died later at Brookdale University Hospital.
Lewis had nine prior arrests, according to the Daily News, "including felony assault, four robberies and criminal possession of a controlled substance." Police are investigating the cause of Lewis' stab wound. He is survived by ten children.
