Crowd kills man after child is injured by automobile

What is happening to our society?

Tuesday in Austin, David Rivas Morales, 41, was a passenger in a car that pulled into an apartment complex parking lot. Morales and the driver were on their way home from work.

The vehicle allegedly struck a 2-year-old toddler. The driver got out of the car to check on the child’s condition.

He was confronted by a mob of angry people. The crowd attacked the driver.

Morales jumped from the car to try and defend the driver. The mob turned on him, savagely beating him, then leaving him to die.

The driver got away.

The child, Michael Hosea Jr., was taken to a hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.

Police say the number of attackers could range from two to 20. No one is exactly sure. Just as no one seems to be sure just how many people were in the parking lot watching while all of this went on. There was a Juneteenth celebration in a nearby park and the crowd had spilled out. Residents at the complex say several hundred were in the parking lot and surrounding area. Police say the number was much smaller.

However many were there, these were people who could have stepped in to help.

It’s tragic that a child was struck and injured. But from all indications it was an accident.

And no matter how upset any in the crowd were over the accident, it is unconscionable that such a mob attack—a mob murder—could happen in this day and age, and in the state’s capital city, no less.

Let’s hope the authorities quickly find those responsible for such a brutal and senseless act.