WASHINGTON The father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy killed last year in a bus crash involving a Haitian immigrant driver lashed out on Tuesday at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for spreading hate at the expense of his son.

He also begged GOP politicians to stop using his sons name as a political tool to fuel racist attacks on Haitian immigrants in his small community.

I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man, Nathan Clark read aloud from a piece of paper during a Springfield City Commission meeting, next to his wife, who was choking back tears. I bet you never thought anyone would 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.

Aiden was killed in August 2023 when Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian immigrant, crashed his minivan into the boys school bus. Joseph, who was reportedly driving with a foreign license not valid in Ohio, was convicted of first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter and fourth-degree felony vehicular homicide.

Vance has been using Clarks story to spread outrageous lies about Haitian immigrants. Hes amplified bogus reports that Haitians in Springfield have been abducting peoples pets and eating them and when pressed on his false claims, hes only doubled down .

Trump amplified these lies in Tuesday nights debate. In Springfield, theyre eating the dogs, he claimed. The people that came in, theyre eating the cats. Theyre eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is whats happening in our country. And its a shame.

Trumps and Vances recent smears of Haitian immigrants are part of a broader anti-immigrant message thats been a centerpiece of their campaign for the White House.