14-year-old dies after being hit by car in Fayetteville

Ja-h Quan Peed, 14, was crossing Raeford Road around 6:30 p.m. when he stepped into the path of a 2012 Jeep that was traveling east.

Peed was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, where he died as a result of his injuries.

The driver of the car, 55-year-old William Wortmann, was not seriously injured during the crash. Police said he will not be charged in the incident.

Raeford Road was temporarily closed between Skibo Road and Bingham Drive.

Friday evening, Trena Peed thought her 14-year-old son was walking to a nearby convenience store for snacks. She then heard news that a child had been hit by a car on Raeford Road.

"That's when I called 911 and asked them, what did the boy look like? What was he wearing?" she said.

An officer told Peed to meet him at the hospital. She braced herself for the worst thing a mother could bear. "My head was hurting. It was banging. I was all to pieces," she said. "Heartbreaking isn't the word. He was a sweet little kid."

Peed was in the seventh grade at Westover Middle School. "No one knows the pain that I feel without you being here," his mom wrote in a letter. "You are my son, now and forever more."

Fayetteville police are investigating the incident.