The family of a toddler killed at a New Jersey pumpkin patch is speaking out about the “absolute devastation” of a weekend outing turned fatal.
Robert Gabriel, the father of 2-year-old James Gabriel, was walking ahead with his 4-month-old daughter Evelyn at Bullock Farms in Cream Ridge last Saturday when he looked back and saw his mother trapped beneath a reversing Chrysler SUV. His son, who had just arrived at the farm around 11 a.m. Holding hands with his grandmother Ellen Gabriel, had been struck.
“Everybody’s devastated,” Robert said of the immediate aftermath. “He was as healthy as could be. He was as happy as could be,” he added, referring to the boy affectionately known as Jimmy James.
The father had mapped out a simple autumn Saturday: pumpkin picking followed by football at home. “We were going there to have a good day,” he said. “It was supposed to be a beautiful weekend … It was not supposed to be the absolute devastation that it was.”
James was rushed to Jersey Shore Medical Center but died from blunt force trauma injuries. Ellen Gabriel somehow survived with only minor injuries despite being pinned under the vehicle. “She could have easily been killed,” Robert said. “She’s lucky.”
Meiling Gabriel, James’s mother, channeled her grief into a fundraiser where she described a child captivated by the everyday machinery adults ignore. “The ordinary things that adults might pass by without noticing-a plane high above, a yellow school bus on the road, a car driving past-were exciting discoveries to James,” she wrote. “Through his eyes, we learned to stop, look, and share in that excitement with him.”
The family expanded on that portrait in an online obituary, writing that James “brought immeasurable joy, laughter, and love into the lives of his family from the moment he entered the world.” They noted his outsized presence: “James was truly the light of our world. He had a beautiful smile that could brighten any room and a personality much bigger than his little two-year-old body.”
The finality has left them reeling. “It’s never going to be the same without him,” Robert said. “As his parents, we had a lifetime of plans for James.”
Bullock Farms, the Monmouth County farm where the tragedy unfolded, issued its own statement calling Gabriel’s death a “terrible tragedy” and adding it is “heartbroken by this unimaginable loss.”
New Jersey State Police continue to investigate the crash and have not indicated whether the SUV driver will face charges.