Boy rolled over twice in hit-run clings to life

Brimming with tenderness, Zion Faust-Nelson, 6, wrapped his arms around his mother Sunday night and announced, "I want to give you another Mother's Day hug!"

It was a sweet, innocent gesture - the kind that children Zion's age seem to be full of - and it made his mom, Toni Faust, quietly beam.

Fighting back tears last night, Faust recalled the horror that followed just minutes after she shared that hug with her little boy.

Police said Zion was struck by a Ford Crown Victoria or Mercury Grand Marquis about 7:45 p.m. Sunday as he crossed the street on Provident Road near Limekiln Pike in West Oak Lane.

The driver rolled the car over the boy twice and then drove off, police said. Zion was left unconscious in a pool of blood, with tire tracks embedded across his abdomen.

Faust said her son, whose father is a Philly cop she chose not to name, remained in critical condition yesterday at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children with severe head trauma, facial fractures and a broken right arm.

She said Zion was breathing on his own after doctors took him off a ventilator. Despite that early sign of progress, doctors were unable to operate on an eye injury.

"They're worried he won't come out of the surgery," Faust said outside her home on Argus Road near Limekiln Pike.

Before the gruesome accident, Zion and his brother, Eric, 13, were playing with cousins and eating ice cream during a party at a relative's house a few blocks away, his mother said.

Faust said her older son told police that several young men drove down Provident Road in a dark-green car and sneered, "Y'all better get out the street," at the kids.

Moments later, the car zoommed down Provident Road again. The children scattered, but Zion was struck.

"I was inside, getting some potato salad, when I heard all of the commotion outside," she said.

Faust said she saw Eric standing in the street, staring in shock at something on the ground. "I blacked out and collapsed when I realized it was Zion," she said.

When she awoke, paramedics were attending to her boy, a first-grader at John F. McCloskey Elementary School.

"I said, 'Is he breathing? Is he crying?' They didn't say anything. They just closed the [ambulance] doors and worked on him," Faust said.

Zion was taken first to Albert Einstein Medical Center, then transferred to St. Christopher's.

Faust added that she believes the hit-and-run driver probably lives or hangs out in the surrounding area. She hopes someone will come forward with information.

"They don't care about life. How could they hit him and just drive away? How could they do this to him?"

In the meantime, Faust said she's praying that her son, a SpongeBob fan who quietly inspects his Hot Wheels collection every day, will recover.

"He's my baby," she said. "He's a beautiful, sweet boy."

Detectives from the Accident Investigation Division yesterday examined two cars - one on Greene Street near Abbottsford Avenue, another on 74th Avenue near Andrews Avenue - but no arrests were made.

Tipsters can contact the AID at 215-685-3180. *