A 12-year-old boy was killed over the weekend after he fell off a hayride and was run over, Tennessee law enforcement officials said, according to NBC affiliate WSMV.
The victim, identified as 12-year-old Samuel Jessen, was attempting to jump on the Halloween-themed hayride in Harrison, Tenn., a suburb of Chattanooga, when he slipped and fell underneath the hayride vehicle, according to WSMV.
Jessen was part of a group of juveniles hiding in the bushes along the hayride route trying to scare riders, according to WSMV.
"We started seeing these kids up in the bushes," Mikaela Forrester, a witness to the incident, told WSMV. "And they jumped down, and they were jumping up onto the trailer and just trying to scare all of us."
Another witness told local law enforcement that one of the juveniles “attempted to jump on the trailer and had possibly slipped and fallen underneath the wheels,” according to WSMV.
The organizers of the haunted hayride, The Haunted Hilltop, said Jessen “crossed over a barrier” and jumped onto the trailer before slipping and getting run over.
Organizers also said that riders did not realize what had happened, but Forrester recalled the incident differently.
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"We were all screaming for the hayride driver to stop," Forrester told WSMV. "We could see the young man laying on the ground as we were going."
Forrester said the hayride continued on, but her father jumped off to help Jessen and called 9-1-1, according to WSMV.
The Haunted Hilltop told WSMV that they are devastated by the incident and are working with counselors and chaplains.
