Prosecutors won’t file charges after Ventura girl, 6, dies in Midwest July 4th parade accident

Staff and wire reports
·2 min read
Mabel Askay, 6, who just finished kindergarten, died in an accident during an out-of-state Fourth of July parade.
Mabel Askay, 6, who just finished kindergarten, died in an accident during an out-of-state Fourth of July parade.

Prosecutors in North Dakota have decided not to file any charges in connection with a 6-year-old Ventura girl’s death before the start of Mandan’s July 4th parade.

Mabel Askay of Ventura was in Mandan, North Dakota, visiting relatives and was riding on the DK Orthodontics float on the way to the parade staging area about 9 a.m. that morning. She somehow fell off the float and was hit by a tire. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Mandan Police Lt. Pat Haug told the Bismarck Tribune on Friday that investigators haven’t been able to determine why the girl fell, describing her death as “just a pure accident.”

Haug said the float was moving at less than 10 mph and the driver did nothing to cause the girl’s fall.

A GoFundMe account set up for the girl’s family has raised nearly $93,000. The family published a notice in the Tribune thanking the Bismarck-Mandan community for its financial support as well as its “prayers and hugs.”

“You held us up while our world crumbled,” the notice read.

Mabel is the daughter of Juanamaria Elementary School Principal Michael Askay and died just weeks after finishing kindergarten, a Ventura Unified School District spokeswoman told the Star earlier this month.

“From the moment she arrived on December 10, 2015, Mabel Rae Askay lived her life like a red-haired tornado that fiercely loved everyone she ever came across,” her obituary reads. “She never met anyone, or any of God’s creatures, that she couldn’t be friends with.”

“We are dedicated to wrapping our arms around this family, including her brother and sister, Fletcher and Matilda, when they return home,” Marieanne Quiroz, the school district’s public information officer, wrote in a statement after the tragedy.

Lynn Bova, Askay’s kindergarten teacher, said in a statement shortly after the accident that there were “no words” to describe her former student.

“You must imagine the warmth of the sun when she skips into the room,” Bova said in the statement. “The joy in her sparkly blue eyes, her kindness as she rescues a lost spider or bug that found its way into our classroom, the silliness of her green tongue after enjoying a popsicle, and the love she shared with everyone she met.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: No charges in California girl's 4th of July death in North Dakota