Tennessee boy run over, killed on 5th birthday while retrieving lost ball under car

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Kenneth "Keith" Vaughn turned 5 years old on Friday, the day he was hit and killed by a van.

A Tennessee boy was killed on his fifth birthday, run over as he tried to retrieve a ball — one of his presents — from under a van.
Little Kenneth “Keith” Vaughn was playing with his new toy Friday night after his birthday party. The ball rolled under a parked van in front of his grandma’s Nashville home, and he crawled under the truck to find it, WKRN reported.
As Keith was retrieving the ball, the van’s driver, a family friend, began to pull away and hit the boy underneath. The boy’s dad rushed him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police called Keith’s death an accident and have not pressed charges.
Earlier Friday, Keith celebrated his fifth birthday with a party in a local park. There was a "SpongeBob SquarePants" piñata and lots of gifts, including a new ball and bat set.

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Keith, left, would have entered kindergarten in the fall.

"Every time someone told him 'happy birthday,' he would say, 'thank you.' It was just the sweetest thing. He was just real sweet that day,” his aunt Belinda Vaughn told the Tennessean.
After the afternoon park party, some of the family went back to Keith’s grandma’s house.
The birthday boy was playing outside with the ball about 10 p.m. when he sneaked under the van. At the same time, the driver, Terry L. Fleming, decided to leave the after party. He didn’t know Keith was under the car when he started to back away.
"He was loved," Belinda Vaughn said of her nephew, who would have entered kindergarten in the fall. "Always tell the people you love you love them because you never know when it's going to be the last time you do that."

Funeral arrangements have not been announced yet, but friends set up a GoFundMe account for the Vaughn family. The page had collected more than $3,300 in donations by Monday morning.
While Fleming has not been charged, the police department's Youth Services Division is still investigating the incident.