Montgomery County Police Friday identified the girl killed after being hit by a school bus in Rockville Thursday as Summer Lim.

The collision occurred at the crosswalk between Russett Road and Bauer Drive. Police were dispatched to the scene at 3:13 p.m. for a report of a bus crash involving a bicyclist. They found Lim, 11, near the rear of the school bus, according to officials.

Despite life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Both Lim and the bus were coming from Earle B. Wood Middle School, which is about two blocks from the site of the collision, police said. No one on the bus was reported injured.

A letter about Lim’s death went out to the school community Thursday evening, Montgomery County Public Schools spokesperson Liliana López wrote in an email Friday.

“School counselors, psychologists, and support staff will be available throughout the day,” López wrote. “Teachers will have guidance on how to support students and help connect anyone who may need extra care.”

Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Taylor on Thursday expressed condolences on behalf of the school system “to the student’s family, friends, teachers, classmates.”

“No words can truly capture the pain that our school community is feeling at this time,” Taylor said. “This is every parent’s worst nightmare and every educator’s greatest fear.”

Neighbors gathered on the front lawn of a nearby house late Thursday evening as police conducted their investigation. On Friday morning, a memorial at the intersection included flowers, stuffed animals, a candle and a small jar of rosary beads.

A grieving community

Jeanette Beers has lived on the corner of Russett Road for 25 years. On Thursday, Lim died there.

Beers said she was in her backyard when she heard a woman’s scream from the scene of the collision. When Beers went out front and saw kids on the bus looking out the window, she brought blankets out to shield the girl.

“I wish I could have done more,” Beers said.

On Friday morning, she brought a bucket of water for some of the memorial’s flowers. Community members stopped by the memorial to pray and bring mementos.

Cars slowed as they approached the memorial, and several people commented through their windows.

“We need a three-way stop here,” someone said as they drove by.

Norma Caceres stood next to the flowers, holding her toddler. Caceres, a bus driver with a 10-year-old daughter, came to the scene after hearing about the collision on the news.

“As a driver, the last thing you want is an accident, let alone with a kid,” Caceres said, in a conversation with The Banner that has been translated from Spanish.

Councilmember Natali Fani-González, who represents District 6, where the incident occurred, also visited the site on Friday morning.

“I have children around the same age,” she said, crying. “Imagine.”

Fani-González said she struggled to understand what happened, pointing at the surrounding sidewalks and crosswalks. Tomorrow, she is attending the funeral of a teen who was struck and killed by a vehicle at a Kensington crosswalk.

“It is not about blaming anybody, but as a policymaker I need to understand,” she said.

She added, “It could have been me, it could have been anybody, and it’s wrong.”

Mary Vandenbroucke, a resident from a couple streets over on Woodcrest Drive, looked down at the flowers with her hand over her mouth.

Vandenbroucke said the neighborhood’s community is tight-knit. In the morning, people ride bikes to school and walk their dogs as if it were a parade.

She walked past the scene at around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and saw what she assumed to be Lim’s book bag, with pastel rainbow colors, on the side of the road.

On Friday, she brought a small pumpkin to the memorial.

“Everybody here is incredibly sad,” she said, wiping tears.