‘A punch in the gut’: Parents of teen recovering from St. Johns County hit and run seeking justice

Thomas Mooney and Amanda Wheeler remember leaving their house Friday morning for work as they normally do, leaving their 14-year-old son, Maslin, to walk to his bus stop in Flagler Estates.

What they now say they’ll never forget is the phone call telling them he’d been hit by a car, right after they’d gone to work.

“Oh man, it’s gut-wrenching. It’s like a punch in the gut. It really is the worst feeling you can possibly imagine,” said Mooney, Maslin’s father.

Maslin’s parents say, in just the last week, they’ve had to watch their son go from smiling and pulling pranks to breathing through a tube.

“It’s rough to watch it. Knowing how he used to be and knowing how he is now, it’s a bit much,” said Wheeler, Maslin’s stepmother.

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says it has since identified and interviewed the driver they believe is responsible for the hit-and-run that put Maslin in the hospital. We have not been given the name of the suspected driver. The sheriff’s office says it still hasn’t made any arrests, but it has seized the car involved.

“It’s hard, it’s really hard. But I have faith in our sheriff’s office, I think we have a really good sheriff’s office in St. Johns County and they want to get him just as much as anyone else would,” said Mooney.

Last week, Action News Jax told you when the sheriff’s office first reported the hit-and-run, saying Maslin had been hit as he was walking to his bus stop by a driver who then took off, leaving him on the side of the road before he was flown to Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

The family’s church, First Baptist Church of Hastings, just shared a new picture of Maslin in the hospital. The church, along with the family, say he is now awake and talking again for the first time since the hit-and-run. We’re told he has multiple broken bones and bleeding from his left inner ear lobe after a head injury.

He’s expected to fully recover, but his parents are hoping their family will be able to pull through, too.

“It’s just scary not knowing how much of him is going to come back,” Wheeler said.

The family is asking for the driver to come forward, but says they forgive them for what happened. More than anything, Maslin’s parents are now feeling a new sense of faith in the community they say has been at their side throughout their son’s recovery.

“I’m watching the power of prayer work in real time. The amount he’s come since last Friday was truly amazing, truly amazing,” Mooney said.

The First Baptist Church of Hastings has since opened up a donation for the family for anyone to pitch in to help with Maslin’s recovery. His parents say anyone who wishes to help them should donate to their church, which you can do at the link here.

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