Child crashes vehicle into building in downtown Parsons, police say

PARSONS, Tenn. — Parsons police officers are left trying to figure out what to do after a car hit a building early Thursday morning. Lt. Wes Woodward says he saw the events leading up to the crash.

“I encountered a vehicle running at a high rate of speed, and by the time I got turned around, the individual had already run into the building,” he said.

Police say an 11-year-old child was driving the car. “A juvenile driver that had ended up taking his parents’ vehicle without permission and just failed to stop,” he said.

The child did quite a bit of damage to the building and the vehicle.

“We watched them pull the Suburban out, and it was horrible. Every window was broken,” Amber Hunter said. She and her co-worker watched the after-effects of the crash.

“Because when it was dark, you couldn’t even see the hole in the wall from here,” Gibson said.

Now that the building has a hole in its side, one question is what’s going to happen to the mural in downtown Parsons?

“I believe it’s going to be saved, due to them repairing the building,” Woodward said. “At this time, it doesn’t look like it’ll have to be torn down.”

Police say the child is expected to be OK. “No major injuries to this individual. They just transported to have the individual checked out,” Woodward said.

“Once the sun came up, reality hit. It’s scary. It’s very scary, but luckily he’s all right,” Gibson said.

Police say it is not known how the child got the car. Engineers were working Thursday morning to determine how much structural damage was done to the building.