Burien Police Deputy Nicholas Cain has organized a campaign to aid the victims of the incident at Ross Dress for Less in Burien in which a van was driven through the front door injuring 11 people.

Cain writes:

On December 16, at about 2100, a male drove a van through the front doors of Ross at a high rate of speed. The van struck several people, and a large amount of merchandise, leaving the vehicle about 40 feet into the store. When deputies arrived, there were several people trapped under the vehicle, including just-turned-2-year-old David Chiche.

David was with his mother, Lezly, and his grandfather, Obduilio, shopping during the crash. Obdulio was pushing David in his stroller as the vehicle careened into them, trapping them both underneath the vehicle and sending them both to the hospital in critical condition. Lezly wasn’t hit by the car, and is uninjured, but she’s a 22-year-old single mother who is raising David without a large support network.

David in particular was badly injured. David wasn’t breathing when we arrived on scene, and if it wasn’t for the life-saving efforts of the King County Fire Department, he would’ve died on scene. David suffered a liver laceration, a fractured pelvis, and his right leg was broken in the upper and lower portions. David was rushed to Harborview. He’s been in and out of surgery and will have another surgery tomorrow. David is in critical condition, but is expected to survive. Obdulio has a fractured leg as well, but will not require further surgery. The two of them remain in the hospital as of now.

Of course there were many victims in this incident, but this family specifically affected me. Lezly is a young single mother, and David is a toddler who has already battled medical conditions for the first two years of his life resulting in multiple surgeries. Lezly’s car was also struck and damaged during this incident, so she’s out of a car for the time being.

The hospital stay alone will cost this family thousands of dollars. Fortunately, David has medical insurance, but Obdulio does not. With the holidays coming up, and this being the birthday month of both Lezly and David, finances are already tight for this family. 

To help this family, I’m organizing some donations and hopefully get them back on their feet. I wanted to reach out to you all, because KCSO is a generous family that does this job to help people like these. As of tonight, there will be a collection area in the Precinct 4 sergeant’s office, where we will be collecting monetary donations, gas cards, toys, or anything else that can help. Deputy Marquez reached out to Lezly today, and she said that David loves Paw Patrol too. A replacement stroller will be purchased soon, so that’s covered. I’m setting a deadline for Thursday, January 2nd. The tentative plan is to compile everything and bring it all over to Lezly on January 3rd.

Anything at all helps. Thank you. 

Nicholas Cain

Burien Police Department

UPDATE

An update on David. Following another surgery on the 19th, he remains in the ICU at Harborview. His grandfather, Obdulio, is also still in the ICU.

So far, we’ve raised hundreds of dollars, and the donations are still coming in. I’ve been in contact with the King County Fire District 2 crew (who resuscitated David on scene), and they are getting involved with this as well.

There are now donation areas in Precinct 2, Precinct 3, and Precinct 4, as well as the Comm Center. Additionally, the family has created a GoFundMe that they wish to share with us as well as the public. I’ve attached a link to the bottom of this email. 

Thank you for your continued support of David and his family.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/1uihgsgy00?sharetype=teams&member=3396100&utm_medium=more&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=50781ffeb9424e9caef762eb0e9bc751