Father of 11-Year-Old Killed in Ohio Crash Says Trump and Vance Are Using His Son ‘As a Political Tool’

The father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy who was killed last year when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant struck his school bus said Tuesday that Donald Trump and JD Vance were “morally bankrupt politicians” who were using his dead son as a political tool.

Nathan Clark, of Springfield, denounced the Republican presidential ticket and asked Trump and Vance to apologize in an impassioned speech before the City Commission after Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, mentioned the death of Clark’s son Aiden as a reason to oppose Haitian immigration.

“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible for any political purpose,” Clark said during the commission’s public comment period, according to a livestream of the meeting.

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Aiden died in August 2023 on the first day of school when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant hit the bus he was riding in. The driver, Hermanio Joseph, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide and sentenced to nine to 13 years in prison.

The crash, in which more than 20 other students were injured, has fueled anger at a wave of recent Haitian immigrants in Springfield. {snip}

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Clark, with his wife, Danielle, by his side at Tuesday’s meeting, said it was not true that his son was “murdered,” as Vance said.

“My son Aiden Clark was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation, but don’t spend this towards hate. In order to live like Aiden, you need to accept everyone,” he said.

Clark named four politicians who he said were “morally bankrupt” for referring to his son: Trump, Vance, Ohio’s Republican nominee for the Senate, Bernie Moreno, and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain,” he said.

“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio,” he said.

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Clark said the rise in anti-Haitian hatred was enough to make him wish that his son had been “killed by a 60-year-old white man” so “hate-spewing people would leave us alone.”

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