LAWRENCE, Mass. (WHDH) — Chaos broke out Monday outside Lawrence District Court after the suspect in a hit-and-run crash that left a young a girl dead in Methuen was arraigned.
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Steven Toro, 22, was arrested Saturday on charges he fatally struck 11-year-old Jadee Soto Thursday night as she crossed Broadway with her father.
Soto was was thrown into the air and hit by another vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. She was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Authorities said Toro drove off heading toward Lawrence. Police said a tip from the public is what led them to Toro.
Soto’s distraught family exchanged words with Toro’s family outside the courthouse, prompting a scuffle that resulted in one arrest and one injury. 7’s Steve Cooper reports an angry mob charged at the entrance to the court’s prisoner garage, prompting officers to take action.
Toro was allowed to hide his face in court. He was ordered held on $50,000 bail, despite a request that he be held on $100,000. Toro pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Prosecutors told the court that Toro admitted to his mother that he had hit someone and was scared to turn himself in.
Several of Soto’s family members said they just want justice for her sudden and tragic death.
Toro is due back in court in October. His attorney said the deadly incident was an “accident.”
An investigation into the crash is ongoing at this time.
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