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A devastated mother has told of how she looked into her toddler's eyes as he somersaulted while being dragged about 20m before he died in his grandmother's arms outside the family home.
Police investigating the accident are looking into reports that a teenager, who told the family at the scene that his mother had been driving, may have been behind the wheel.
Four-year-old Feterika Lawrence Su'a-Roebeck died outside his family's Carr Rd home in Three Kings at 8.30pm on Wednesday after he stepped out of the family's van into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
The family had been walking at One Tree Hill and had parked their van outside their home while Feterika's father, Kirk Roebeck, ran inside.
The Samoan family were about to buy iceblocks before going to Mt Eden for evening prayers.
Mother Milosi Su'a-Roebeck did not hear "Rika" open the sliding door of the van or see him step on to the street. She only knew her son had been hit when she saw his distinctive clothing tumbling under the vehicle.
"He must have followed his Dad," she said. "All I heard was a loud crash. He was somersaulting under the car and his big brown eyes were just staring at me like 'help Mum' and I couldn't help him.
"I was holding him, I was screaming in his ear, 'Ask Jesus to help bring you back'."
Every time she spoke to him he gasped.
"It was like he was trying to fight but I could see his jaw was all crooked."
Rika died at the scene.
Mrs Su'a-Roebeck said Rika, the fifth of eight children, was an intelligent little boy who liked climbing over the fence to visit his neighbours.
He was a big fan of the new children's cartoon Ben 10 and only four hours earlier had been delighted when he was given a brand-new school backpack featuring the cartoon's characters for behaving well at preschool.
He will be buried wearing a suit, with the bag and his beloved Ben 10 watch, after his funeral on Monday, which sadly coincides with his sister Imelda's 11th birthday.
Rika had enjoyed a trip the family took to Samoa a month ago. Although he was nicknamed Rika, he had recently told his mother he wanted to be called by his middle name, Lawrence, and would answer only to that.
"He was a character," she said, smiling. "He was a lively boy. He was active - he was too active. He's a bubbly person. People say he's naughty but he was just boisterous. He was a straightforward person. If he's not happy with someone he'd just say it straight."
Mrs Su'a-Roebeck said she was upset with the teenage boy who was in the car that hit her son.
"I want him to speak the truth. My daughter saw him get out of the driver's seat. Why try to protect himself when my son's life's taken?"
Sergeant Matt Ford of the Auckland serious crash unit said a key part of the police inquiry was whether the boy had been driving.
He would not reveal the boy's age out of fear it could compromise witness statements yet to be made to police.
