Father pushed family to safety before being fatally struck by hit-and-run driver who veered around stopped traffic
By KCAL/KCBS Staff
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LOS ANGELES (KCAL/KCBS) — A man died after pushing his wife and son out of the path of a hit-and-run driver, and police are asking for the public’s help Thursday to bring that driver to justice.
Jimmy Chavarria was struck and killed on Feb. 26 while crossing Hoover Street with his wife and 2-year-old son, Zion, in a crosswalk where flashing yellow pedestrian lights had just been installed. The family was on their way to Saturday night services at Iglesia De Cristo Ministerios Elim, LAPD Capt. Jay Hom said.
“While vehicles were stopped, a driver was impatient,” Hom said. “Went around traffic from the northbound lanes to the southbound lanes, and struck the Chavarria family.”
The alert father saw the collision coming, and pushed his wife out of the way, then threw Zion to the sidewalk and out of the path of the vehicle. Chavarria was hit by the vehicle, and died at a hospital.
“It hurts so much, I miss him so much,” Chavarria’s widow, Angelica, said at a news conference in the parking lot of her church. My 2-year-old asks for his daddy, and I don’t know what to say to him.”
Police say the vehicle was a light-colored sedan, possibly pewter-colored, older sedan and may have been a Nissan Altima. It was missing a right front hubcap even before the collision that killed Chavarria.
Surveillance video captured the suspect vehicle nearly running a red light near Budlong just before the fatal crash, and just narrowly missing another collision afterward, police said. Investigators believe the driver lives in the area.
A $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this crash.
“I forgive you,” Angelica Chavarria said. “I forgive you, but you have to pay for what you did.”
Anyone with information about this crash or the suspect vehicle can call LAPD Detective Moreno at (323) 421-2500.
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