KC family mourns loss of 4-year-old struck by Amazon vehicle: ‘Sweet baby’
Tadens Joseph had eagerly awaited his glasses. He had trouble with his eyes, and his family got him an appointment.
Staff at Kansas City’s Woodland Early Learning Center, where the 4-year-old was enrolled, celebrated with him on Monday as he walked out the door with his dad. He would be wearing glasses soon.
“‘I can’t wait, Mom,’” said the boy’s mother, Tanael, who declined to give her last name, as she recalled her son’s excitement. “‘I can’t wait for my glasses.’”
Not long after leaving school on Monday, he was gone, fatally struck by an Amazon delivery vehicle on the quiet, no-outlet drive outside his home in Kansas City’s Pendleton Heights neighborhood around 6:30 p.m.
Kansas City police said the boy had been playing outside near his home in the 1800 block of East Third Terrace before he went into the road and was hit by the delivery vehicle. He died from his injuries. The driver initially stopped but then left, police said. The driver has since been taken into police custody.
The boy’s mother paced in the street, tears in her eyes, on Tuesday afternoon near where her son had been struck. She paused for a moment and eyed an Amazon van driving past on a nearby street as business rolled on in the neighborhood.
She said that just after the fatal collision Monday night, she chased after the vehicle that hit her son, grabbed onto the driver when the vehicle stopped and shook the woman driving it, insisting that she had killed her son.
“Sweet baby,” she said, recalling her son. “I loved (him). My life.”
Capt. Jacob Becchina, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, said investigators will gather evidence and give their findings to prosecutors, who will determine whether to charge the driver.
“These are complex investigations and many times can take several weeks to complete,” Becchina said. “It is important to get all of the evidence compiled to present a comprehensive picture of the events.”
‘At school yesterday’
Tadens was part of a Haitian migrant family that had moved to the United States in 2024, ready for a new life. The child was carefree, sweet and had stellar attendance at school. The family lives on what they saw as a safe street. There was no traffic to contend with, and kids could play freely.
A staff member at the boy’s school, who asked not to be identified because of a Kansas City Public Schools policy that prohibits employees from speaking to the news media, said the 4-year-old was a “refreshing little kid” with a sweet smile.
“The child was at school yesterday,” the school employee said as she mourned in the street with the boy’s mother on Tuesday. “He was there yesterday.”
“He’s the only one that’s missing from the classroom today,” she said. “What do you tell 3- and 4- and 5-year-olds, that he’s not ever coming back?”
“They’re inquisitive, they’re going to want to know why,” she said. “Most of our children that don’t come back to school, we’re able to say why. They moved away; their mom wants them at home. But what can you say?”
Shopping at an Aldi store a few blocks south of the collision site, Kansas City resident Cornelius White, 68, said he was devastated to hear about the child’s death. White, who lives near 18th Street and used to drive company vans before retirement, said he was disappointed that the driver reportedly left the crash scene.
“You really have to be alert if you do this for a living,” White said. “It’s so hard to hear about this and know it happened in our community.”
“Accidents happen,” he said. “I believe in God but … it’s hard to see kids die so young.”
