An 8-year-old boy who was featured on The Tonight Show for his jump rope skills was killed Saturday afternoon when he was hit by a Jeep while walking home from a fundraising event with his jump rope group.
Jeremiah “Jerry” Grant was the youngest member of the Honey Bees, a Jersey City-based double dutch team that appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show in August. Now, the troupe is mourning the loss of the little boy they called “Prince Bee.”
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“We all stopped at the corner and Jerry heard ‘go’ from another jumper and ran in the street,” Honey Bees founder Takeria Clark told The Jersey Journal. “The car was going so fast. It hit him so hard.”
Jeremiah was with a few other group members when he was hit around 4:30 p.m. He was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The driver of the Jeep, a 60-year-old man, initially kept driving after hitting the boy. Several people ran after the vehicle.
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“I jumped on the street, went after the car. I was able to stop him and let him know he had to stop because he hit somebody,” Jose Pimentel told WNBC. “He said he thought he went over a book bag. He didn’t notice that he had hit a person.”
As of Sunday, no charges had been filed against the driver, according to NJ.com, and sources close to the investigation said speed did not seem to be an immediate factor in Jeremiah’s death.
The tragedy comes two months after the Honey Bees performed on The Tonight Show to showcase their moves following its national championship win.
A YouCaring fundraising page has been set up in Jeremiah’s honor. The page states that all of the funding raised will go to his family. As of Monday morning, the page has raised $3,000 of its $20,000 goal.
