
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993                   TAG: 9306160247
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DANIA, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

FLORIDA GIRL, 6, STANDS IN FRONT OF TRAIN TO DIE

A 6-year-old girl pushed her brother to safety, then stood in front of an oncoming train Tuesday because she wanted to die so she could be in heaven for her terminally ill mother, authorities said.

Jackie Johnson told other children she wanted "to become an angel and be with her mother," said Jim Leljedal, spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

"She pushed me off the track," said her brother, Velarius Fox. "I said, `Get off the track!' She wouldn't get off the track though. When she ran up close to the train, she got hit."

The girl was walking to school with her brother and two other children Tuesday morning when they crossed the railroad tracks.

Jackie was living with her grandmother because her mother has a terminal illness, authorities said.

"The other three children stood clear of the tracks as the 63-car northbound train approached," Leljedal said. "But Jackie deliberately remained in its path."

Jackie apparently turned her back at the last moment, Wright said, but did not move from the tracks. She was thrown 20 feet and suffered a broken neck. - Associated Press

by CNB