KAYSVILLE, Utah — It has been two days since eight-year-old Macie Hill was killed during Kaysville's Fourth of July parade.
With limited details on how this all happened, FOX 13 News went to the Kaysville Police Department for some answers.
"It has just been a tragic event, our whole department is heartbroken," said Kaysville Police Ofc. Lexi Benson.
The department is continuing to try and piece together how Macie was killed during the parade.
"Right now, we are just investigating, looking into further information, we are trying to gather witness statements," said Ofc. Benson.
FOX 13 News told Ofc. Benson that a lot of people want to know how an eight-year-old girl could get run over in a parade. We asked what the department could tell people who are eager to know just how this all happened.
"I would say the family is just as eager to found out as well, so we just want to make sure that we have all the accurate information before we give anything out," said Ofc. Benson.
Chris Bertram is a former deputy chief with the Unified Police Department and also spent the last seven of his 32 years in law enforcement as a chief with the Holladay Police Department.
He says these kinds of complex investigations pose some challenges.
"One is, it is a death, traffic related death, death of a child, I think what complicates it more that it was a, you know, a parade situation where you know, the dynamics of people moving around kids coming into the roadway kids marching in the roadway," said Bertram.
Bertram says in cases involving traffic fatalities like this, he says a lot goes into accident reconstructions.
It's something he says can take days, weeks or even months to complete.
"Law enforcement agencies, they want to make sure that they get it right and they put the right information out, so we're not going back and correcting it later," said Bertram.
A sentiment echoed by Ofc. Benson.
"Make sure we have all the accurate information, as well as the family wants to be able to know before everyone else does," she said.
Ofc. Benson said they expect to be able to release details into how this incident happened in the next several days.
As for what happened here along the parade route on Monday, Ofc. Benson reiterated that the department and the entire community are heartbroken over this and hoping to just get through it the best they can.
