CHICAGO (WGN) - What started off as a normal morning quickly turned into a nightmare.

A family said their 9-year-old boy never made it to school Thursday morning after being hit by a car in Austin.

The boy, identified as Anakin Perez, was a fourth grade student at Ronald E. McNair Elementary School. Flowers and candles now mark the spot where the tragedy happened just outside the school building.

"He was just amazing, loving. His sister would joke around and say he's a momma's boy, but he really was," Anakin's mother Alejandra Gallegos said.

Family and friends were visibly shaken over the incident and spent Thursday evening grieving outside the school.

"He's a 9-year-old child that gets along with everybody. Everybody knows him around here. For him to not be here anymore, it's not fai

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