“Officials say it’s one of the most dangerous streets in all of Los Angeles, and now-” said Gene Kang, suddenly cut off mid-sentence by a car crash on the road directly behind him.
A blaring horn can be heard before a sedan slams into another sedan’s driver side door before pulling a U-turn, running over a curb and speeding away from the scene.
“Our security guard Walter Mann yelled ‘get back’ and we moved as the car came racing towards us. It veered away at the last second and T-boned the car,” Kang said.
The notorious location is in south Los Angeles, at the intersection of 84th and Hoover streets.
Officers who responded to the scene said that the person who drove off was most likely involved in a previous crime and was avoiding getting caught. The attempt to evade penalties will most likely be short lived, as officers were able to recover a license plate that fell during the crash.
Kang was covering a hit-and-run collision that had killed a father Jemmy Chavarria, who had been crossing the street with his family on February 26. The February incident took place after a driver grew frustrated with the build-up of traffic as the family crossed and chose to drive onto the opposite lane and speed through the crosswalk area - despite the road's crossing guard and flashing traffic lights.
While Chavarria had managed to save his wife and 2 year-old son before he was hit by the car, he later died at a hospital. The family had been on their way to church.
The driver who killed the 42-year-old father has yet to be arrested, but a reward of up to $50,000 will be given to anyone who can provide information on the driver’s identification or arrest.
“Today I’m asking you, if you saw the car or you know the person who killed my husband, please contact the police,” begged the father's widow, Angelica Chavarria. The woman stated that she can forgive the driver, but stated that “you have to pay for what you did.”
“It hurts so much. I miss him so much,” she wept. “My 2-year-old asks for his daddy, and I don’t know what to say to him. You took his daddy away from him.”
At a news conference following the death, Los Angeles Police Detective Ryan Moreno described the father's last moments as an “amazing act of heroism.”
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