LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The driver of a vehicle that struck and critically wounded a 15-year-old boy riding his bike in South Los Angeles was at-large this morning and the boy's mother pleaded for the hit-and-run motorist to surrender to authorities.
Police responded to the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Woodlawn Avenue about 9 p.m. Tuesday, where they located the victim, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to Officer Drake Madison of the Los Angeles Police Department.
A preliminary investigation determined the teenager was struck near the intersection of Maple Avenue and 36th Street and dragged at least 1,000 feet to the area of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Woodlawn Avenue, where he became dislodged from the vehicle, police said.
The victim was identified by NBC4 as Roberto Diaz, a junior at Santee Education Complex.
“How is it that you did not have a heart, that you dragged him... to here and left him there to die,” Diaz's mother, through an interpreter, told reporters this morning.
Witnesses stopped the driver, who briefly remained at the scene, then fled in what police described as a green vehicle with tinted windows.
A detailed description of the driver was not immediately available.
A $25,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hit-and-run driver.
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