Hundreds gather at vigil to honor 8-year-old Warsaw boy struck and killed by a car

WARSAW, Ind. -- Friends, family and the community gathered at a vigil to honor 8-year-old Gideon Cook Thursday. Gideon was crossing the street at Husky Trail in Warsaw to get home from summer school Monday when he was struck and killed by a car.

Hundreds of people gathered at Harrison elementary to mourn the loss of young Gideon, those who knew him and even those who didn’t.

 “We’re gathering to honor Gideon Cook,” Kaila Stafford said, a family friend who organized the vigil.

Always smiling and always happy is how friends and family describe the 8-year-old whose life they say was cut too short.

“He loves Legos, and he was just happy all the time. He liked to dance, I guess he was dancing on the side of the road for his sisters while he was waiting… right before the accident,” Stafford said.

Now the family and the community are hoping something will be done to make the crosswalk safer. Kelsey Caldwell, Gideon’s aunt, said the school should take some action to make the crosswalk safer.

 “When I see his picture now I see a life that should now have been taken,” Caldwell said.  “I see the pain in my sister’s eyes. The hurt in his father and his stepmother’s eyes, I see a hole in our family.”

At the vigil, the community, friends and family all gathered in prayer and song and lit candles and released balloons to represent the light Gideon was in their life.

“It’s so wonderful to see so many people come out and rally behind a hurting family,” Clayton Cook said, Gideon’s uncle.

The tragedy is something they’re calling senseless and they’re hoping everyone who came out to honor Gideon left with one important thing; Awareness.

“Awareness for school crossing zones, I mean our area this year has been hit hard with tragic accidents and they are senseless. People need to pay attention,” Stafford said.