Toddler, 3, fatally struck by car in Town ‘N Country

Michaela Mulligan, Tampa Bay Times
Updated ·2 min read

A 3-year-old child was fatally struck by a car early Thursday after wandering away from a Town ‘N Country apartment, deputies said.

Deputies responded to a 911 call just before 3 a.m. about a child who had been hit by a vehicle in the northbound lane of Sheldon Road, near Brennan Circle, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. When deputies arrived, they found the 3-year-old child in the road.

The child was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and pronounced dead there.

The driver of the car had just gotten off work and was returning home when he realized he’d hit something, Amanda Granit, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said during a news conference at the scene. The driver did not see anything in the road but turned his vehicle around. That was when he discovered the child, Granit said.

The man showed no signs of impairment, Granit said.

The Sheriff’s Office did not release the name of the child or the driver.

A friend of the boy’s family, Fallon Shelton, identified him as Cody Noble.

Within an hour, deputies found an open door at the Valencia at Westchase apartments, about a quarter mile from where the child was hit, and the toddler’s parents were looking for the child.

“At that point, you can imagine the heartbreak and the nightmare that these parents realized that they were living in,” Granit said. ”At 3:30 in the morning, there is no place that a child should be, and no place that a parent expects a child to be, other than safe and in their bed.”

Granit said deputies were working to determine how the child got out of the home, and she said no one is currently facing criminal charges in the incident.

Shelton, the family friend, has created a GoFundMe campaign to help with funeral expenses. Cody, who was autistic, was one of four children and had a twin sister, Shelton said in a text message exchange with the Tampa Bay Times.

Their mother Stephanie Noble “is an excellent mother and lives for her children,” Shelton said.

Times staff writer Tony Marrero contributed to this report.