Community left in shock after 2-year-old hit in Georgetown County; driver arrested

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - A community was left in shock on Monday after a two-year-old child was hit by a truck.

Authorities said 42-year-old Florentino Cruz-Guerrero hit the young child just before 7 p.m. Sunday on Harmony Hills Drive.

The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said Cruz-Guerrero drove away from the scene, but he was arrested later in the Harmony Hills neighborhood.

The child was flown to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where neighbors said he is alert.

Neighbors were left shaken because they said kids play and ride their bikes in the street all the time, and it could have been their child hit by the truck.

The landlord for the Harmony Hills Mobile Home Park, Deborah Swails, said she had just seen the two-year-old riding a bike with his older sibling moments before the crash.

“I come home from the grocery store and my son, grandson come and told me this and that had got run over, and I says, ‘What?’ and that’s when I found out that you know he got run over,” Swails explained.

She added the suspect in the case has young children himself.

“Maybe he’s learned a lesson because he’s got kids too,” Swails said.

Meanwhile, Swails said the community needs to work on getting people to slow down and look out while they’re driving through the area. She said there are only two speed limit signs and one of them is covered in spray paint.

“We fixin’ to put up street signs, and see if we can prevent this, slow these people down,” Swails said.

Cruz-Guerrero is charged with driving under the influence and driving without a license. He was booked in the Georgetown County Detention Center and released on a $1,224 bond Wednesday.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol is the lead agency in the investigation.

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