Car kills a 5-year-old girl and her dad in a trick-or-treating tragedy on a Davie street

Halloween night turned tragic for a Davie family and a driver when a 5-year-old girl and a man were killed Wednesday night when a Cadillac sedan hit them as they crossed a Davie street, police say.

Another child, a 2-year-old girl, who was with them suffered a minor cut to the side of her head and was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital as a precaution by one of the responding officers, Davie police said.

The accident happened around 7:40 p.m. near the 6600 block of Griffin Road, in the eastbound lanes.

According to Davie police spokesman, Sgt. Mark Leone, Carlos Alvarado Amaya, 46, was walking with the two children south in a designated cross walk. A 2011 silver Cadillac driven by Jocelin Butterfield, 31, was traveling east on Griffin Road in the inside through lane approaching the cross walk and its traffic signal.

Police say Amaya and the two children walked into the path of the car which was traveling at least 45 mph. Butterfield saw Amaya and the children and tried to stop but hit them.

Amaya, a father of four, and the 5-year-old girl died on the scene.

Police say excessive speed and alcohol “do not appear to be factors in the crash” and Butterfield remained on the scene and spoke to officers.

The busy thoroughfare was shut down late into the night for the investigation.

Miami Herald news partner, CBS4, said the family was out trick-or-treating for Halloween.

“She wanted to go trick or treating in her costume,” the children’s mother and Amaya’s wife Maria Amanda Orellana-Cruz told CBS4.

Orellana-Cruz was notified by officers at her home and reunited with her 2-year-old daughter at the hospital, Leone said in the preliminary police report.

“He was a hard-working man,” Orellana-Cruz told CBS4 of Amaya. “He wanted his kids to get ahead in life by studying hard.”

The police investigation continues.

This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 9:20 PM.