10-Year-Old Girl Dies After Diving In Front of SUV to Save Two Toddlers, 'She's Truly a Hero'

Feb 26, 2016 07:29 PM EST

Kiera Larsen, the ten-year-old girl who was referred to as a guardian angel after saving two toddlers from a moving SUV, has died due to the injuries she sustained during the accident. According to reports, she dove in front of the vehicle to move two young girls to safety.

As reported by the Daily Mail, the incident happened as Larsen was playing with her neighbors Adison and Emma Jenkins, aged one and two years old respectively, at her house's driveway in Lakeside, California. But then, a parked Mercedes SUV started to roll backwards toward the three girls, NY Daily News reported.

Larsen then jumped in to move the two young girls out of the path of the moving vehicle. Although she was able to save Adison and Emma, she was still struck by the SUV. She was then immediately brought to a hospital but eventually died due to her injuries.

"She is truly a hero," Alissa Jenkins, the mother of Adison and Emma said about Larsen according to Fox 5 San Diego.

"She will forever be my kids' guardian angel," she added. "She saved both my daughters' lives. These are my two kids that I have and both of them could've been gone in an instant and she stepped in and took over and did what she knows best to do - and that's to protect those around her."

Police officers investigating the incident are still trying to figure out how the unmanned SUV moved. But various reports indicated that the car may have moved after another child unintentionally tampered with it.

"A child died heroically, I mean f you think about it, she sacrificed herself for another small child," Officer Kevin Pearlstein of the California Highway Patrol said. "We're going to do an inspection on the vehicle, find out why this happened, find out if there was some sort of malfunction on the vehicle and go from there."

Following the death of Larsen, a fundraising campaign at Gofundme.com was launched to help her family cover the funeral expenses. As of Feb. 26, the donations have already reached a total of $58,220.