GROTON — A child was killed in a two-car collision in Groton Monday evening.
Police said that just before 5:30 p.m. on Halloween evening first-responders responded to a two-car crash on Gold Star Highway, near Packer and Welles Road.
Three people were taken to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. Two suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries, but the third, a child, was flown by LifeStar to Yale-New Haven Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The 4-year-old girl, identified as Delilah Ali, died from her injuries. An autopsy will be performed on Wednesday to determine her exact cause of death. Her parents’ injuries were not life-threatening.
FOX 61 spoke to Delilah’s aunt, Crystal Mackin, who said the family was headed to a Halloween pizza party at her grandmother’s house just a few miles away when the crash occurred. The pizza party was an annual tradition for the family.
Mackin told FOX 61 the pain is being felt by the whole family. “My sister is devastated Delilah was her life…(Delilah) was the baby of the whole family sweetest innocent lil thing ever.”
The driver of the other car sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene, according to police.
This isn’t the only tragedy the family has faced. Mackin confirms with FOX 61 that her family suffered great loss in 2011 when another family member, Jaclyn Wirth, was murdered.
A man fired nine shots through her Norwich apartment door while her two young sons were home with her, according to police.
Police arrested Lashawn Cecil, 33, of Norwich in 2015. He’ll next be in court December 5.
Mackin says Wirth’s two sons lived in the same house as Delilah, and the loss of their young cousin is heartbreaking for the entire family.
Police said the cause of the crash is under investigation by the department’s crash reconstruction team with the assistance of the Ledyard Police Department.
If you saw the crash or have any information that may help, you’re asked to call police at (860) 441-6712.
