HYDE PARK, LOS ANGELES () — New details are emerging in a hit-and-run that killed a 16-year-old boy in Los Angeles, with a witness saying a man arrived at the scene after the crash to retrieve a baby from the suspects’ wrecked vehicle.
The new detail emerged Wednesday as family members mourned the loss of Hernan Martinez at a growing memorial on West 60th Street in Hyde Park. Candles and flowers surrounded a photo of the teenager at the spot where he was struck and killed.
Martinez had accompanied his mother and younger sister Tuesday night to pick up medication. Surveillance video captured a sedan running a stop sign, later striking the siblings.
Neighbor Jerome Alexander said he heard the collision and rushed outside.
“We heard a loud bang. Honestly, it was so loud it sounded like someone hit a building or a car,” Alexander said.
When he reached the scene, Alexander said he found Martinez’s mother and sister on the ground near his vehicle.
“The daughter was partially under our car. At first, she wasn’t conscious and then her mom started talking to her and her eyes popped open,” he said.
Alexander said Martinez was several yards away and was on top of the vehicle that struck him.
“Me and the mom saw him roll off the car and we took off running down there. The mom tried to grab him, and I tell her, ‘No, don’t move him real fast,'” he said.
Alexander said a man and woman inside the blue sedan ran from the crash scene.
Moments later, Alexander said, a man came back to the heavily damaged vehicle and removed what appeared to be a baby from the back seat.
“A guy came back, opened the back door, moved the airbags out the way, a lot of smoke coming out the car and he grabbed the baby out the backseat and left with the baby,” Alexander said.
He said he confronted the man as he took the child.
“I said stop touching the car, they just killed somebody’s kid, and he said, ‘I don’t care about that,'” Alexander said.
Martinez’s 13-year-old sister, Vicky, was taken to a hospital for treatment. Family members on Wednesday said she has not yet been told her brother died.
“She still doesn’t know… We told her that he’s at another hospital right now,” said Eliseo Martinez Hernandez, Martinez’s brother.
Relatives gathered around the memorial Wednesday evening as the family continued to grieve the loss of the teenager while his sister recovered from her injuries.
No suspects have been arrested.
A group plans to protest Sunday, saying speeding and hit-and-run crashes have been a problem in the area for years. They plan to paint crosswalks at the intersection where the teenager was killed and demand action from city leaders.
The Martinez Hernandez family has set up a GoFundMe to help with medical and funeral expenses.
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