His son died in a crash with a Haitian immigrant. He says Trump, Vance are using it for ‘political gain’

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WCMH) — The same evening that former President Donald Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants were causing chaos in Springfield, the father of a child killed in 2023 spoke at a podium about the political use of his son’s death.

Nathan Clark didn’t mince words when he stood before the Springfield City Commission on Tuesday, after online accusations about Haitian immigrants drew national attention to the Ohio town.

“You know, I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man,” Clark said. “I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt. But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone. The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces.”

Aiden Clark, a student in Ohio’s Northwestern Local Schools District, died Aug. 22, 2023, when a minivan crashed with his school bus. The van’s driver, Hermanio Joseph, did not have a valid U.S. driver’s license and instead had one from Mexico, and Nathan has acknowledged that Joseph is a Haitian immigrant. A jury found Joseph guilty of vehicular homicide in May, and a judge sentenced him to nine to 13 years in prison.

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During his face-off with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Trump did not directly mention the crash as he exclaimed, “they’re eating the dogs.” But his running mate and one of Ohio’s current U.S. senators, J.D. Vance, used it as a talking point alongside claims immigrants were abducting pets and causing a local rise in tuberculosis and HIV.

“Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here,” Vance wrote.

Springfield Mayor Rob Rue has disputed many of Vance’s claims about what’s going on in the town, and the only visual evidence of animal abductions by the 12,000 to 15,000 migrants has been proven to come from unrelated cases. But Rue said he would not comment on the crash, out of respect for the family. Now, Aiden’s father has said he has never approved Vance, Trump, and other Republican politicians wielding his son’s death for “political gain.”

“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible,” Clark said. “My son, Aiden Clark, was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti.”

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