Houston boy, 4, killed by SUV during pickup from daycare

(Reuters) - A 4-year-old boy waiting to be picked up from his Houston daycare was struck and killed on Tuesday by a sports utility vehicle operated by an elderly woman retrieving her grandchild, law enforcement said.

The 81-year-old woman, who intended to give a ride to both children, backed over the boy before he was safely in the back of the Lincoln Navigator, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

The woman tried to catch the child, but she fell out of the SUV, the sheriff's office said.

The vehicle then continued to reverse and slammed into parked cars and the daycare center window, authorities said.

The child, who sustained severe head trauma, was airlifted from the scene and pronounced dead.

The accident remains under investigation, the sheriff's office said.

The boy's family told broadcaster KPRC-TV that the woman should not have been retrieving him from the day care.

"We don't know this lady," father Charles Craft told the station. "She had no authorization to pick up my child."

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in New York; Editing by Robert Birsel)