9-year-old killed by car while getting ice cream in South Fulton subdivision

9-year-old struck and killed while getting ice cream

A South Fulton family is searching for answers after a vehicle hit and killed a 9-year-old boy. Witnesses say the boy was simply getting a sweet treat from the ice cream truck when he was hit Wednesday afternoon.

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. - A South Fulton family is searching for answers after a 9-year-old boy was killed Wednesday afternoon by a car.

Witnesses say the boy was simply getting a sweet treat from the ice cream truck when he was hit.

"He was getting his ice cream. I just wished he had waited until I got home," his mother, D’Estin Perry, said.

A'Cariyon Perry (Supplied)

It hadn’t been a full 24 hours when FOX 5 talked with the victim’s the young child’s mother.

"Love your babies as much as possible," Perry said.

As she still works to process how and why her 9-year-old son, A’Cariyon Perry, was hit and killed right in front of their South Fulton home.

"My baby went to go get ice cream and was coming back across the street to the house. The car sped around the corner to go around the ice cream truck and hit him," Perry said.

Fresh pain is seen along Creel Road in South Fulton at the spot investigators marked during the death investigation of 9-year-old A'Cariyon Perry, who was struck and killed by a car on Oct. 4, 2023. (FOX 5)

South Fulton Police said the incident happened Wednesday afternoon just before 5 p.m. at the home on Creel Road.

Witnesses say A’Cariyon went with other kids to get ice cream from the truck parked out front when another driver sped around, hitting him.

"Everyone was saying the ice cream truck had its arm out and the stop sign, so there were different ways in which he was in the wrong," Albert Tillman said.

"By the time they had gotten here the blood. It was so bad that he had to have been speeding because it was on impact. His heart had already stopped," Perry said.

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Many people in the neighborhood believe speed was a factor and say it has been an issue in this usually quiet neighborhood.

Police say the driver stayed at the scene.

"They knew my baby. He was busy, loved candy and ice cream," Perry said.

This grieving family says the 9-year-old was playful, silly, loved dinosaurs and his phone.

"Don’t take for granted today and tomorrow. So many say, ‘I will see you tomorrow,’ but that’s not promised. You put your child on the bus and you just know you are going to see them get off the bus," Albert Tillman said.