A 12-year-old Far Rockaway girl who dreamed of becoming an Olympic track star was struck and killed by a “dollar van” yesterday after she ran out into the street with her friends, police and relatives said.
Emani Lewis was playing with her pals near her building on Rockaway Beach Boulevard at Beach 84th Street at about 4:20 p.m.
She had run into the street after grabbing a scarf from one of the friends and didn’t see the van, witnesses said.
Friends shouted at her, but “she just stood there like she was in shock,” said one witness, April Soto, 14.
The van driver swerved to avoid Lewis, but she ran to the spot where the van swerved, cops said.
“Oh, God! Oh, God! They killed my baby,” said Lewis’ anguished mother, Teiksha Knock. “She loved running. Just last week, her gym teacher was telling me she was a great runner.”
Lewis had won medals in school track meets, relatives said. “She wanted to go to the Olympics,” Knock said.
The driver, Jeremy Mitchell, 18, was given summonses for not having a livery or hack license and for driving with tinted windows.