She was "beautiful and passionate and innocent" and "deserved so much more." Those were the words of the mother of a young girl who died after a car crashed into her Florida day care center Wednesday.
Nicole Quintus, mother of 4-year-old Lily Quintus, said her daughter was sitting at a table waiting for her afternoon snack when a car came crashing through the wall, according to the Associated Press, who spoke with Nicole Quintus on Thursday.
Lily's father, Brian Quintus, is a Groveland, Fla., firefighter and that his co-workers adored the young girl. The family and community are now in mourning.
Florida Highway Patrol confirmed Thursday that suspect Robert Corchado turned himself in at the Orange County Jail. He was officially charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death and had his bond set at $100,000.
All day and well into the evening Thursday, parents like David Garcia and Luz Garcia showed up to the KinderCare facility to leave mementos at a memorial that has been growing since it was set up Wednesday evening.
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The Garcias were outside the day care Thursday afternoon when a reporter told them that Corchado was in jail.
“Our prayers have been answered,” David Garcia said.
“I’m just happy that they caught him, and I’m just so sorry that the families have to go through all of this pain,” said Luz Garcia.
Their daughter, Isabelle, was not in the day care Wednesday when the accident happened.
Ralph Velez and Christina Carde's 5-year-old son Xavier was sitting at a table when the car crashed into the building.
"My son could've not made it out of that. I'm very angry," said Velez.
Carde said Xavier was eating a snack when the car came barreling toward him.
"He described his friend getting hit in the stomach with the table," said Carde. "He said he saw his friends underneath the car. He said he saw one of his friends with blood on her face."
Amy Deberry's 5-year-old daughter Annabell, a friend of Lily's, had just been picked up from the day care when the accident happened.
"She doesn't fully understand, she knows that her friends have been hurt and one of them has gone to heaven," Amy Deberry said.
Carolina Fernandez's daughter should have been in that class but she said her 3-year-old told her she didn't want to go to school, so she kept her kids home.
Fernandez said she'll have to find a way to tell her daughter that her best friend has died.
"I don't think a 4-year-old kid can understand heaven," said Fernandez. "They don't understand that part. Even we don't understand."