Sun Valley family speaks out after 15-year-old expectant father killed by reckless driver
A 15-year-old father-to-be was killed after a reckless driver lost control of their car late Saturday evening, careening into multiple parked cars on the side of the road in Sun Valley.
The incident happened at around 11 p.m. near White Street, when the suspect was driving a 2007 Cadillac Escalade SUV eastbound on Strathern Street at "a high rate of speed," according to Los Angeles Police Department.
While driving, he allegedly lost control of the car and slammed into several parked cars off the side of the road. The force of the collisions sent debris flying, police said.
The boy, identified by family members as Carlos Pech, was walking along the roadway at the time and was hit during the collision. He was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries before he was later pronounced dead.
Pech's mother says that he was probably waling to or from his great-grandmother's house when the crash happened late Saturday.
"I heard it and I knew from there I lost my son," Pech's mother Christine Hernandez said.
She says that her motherly instinct, paired with the bond she shared with her son, alerted her before she was able to run to the scene of the crash.
Hernandez was temporarily detained by police for her reaction to the tragedy.
"I'm a mother, a mother's gonna react the way how I reacted, but for them to arrest me the way they did and handcuff me and be begging them I need to be at the hospital with my son ... they didn't care and I found out that he passed away on my way to the hospital."
She says that her beloved "Carlito" was expecting his first child next month with his girlfriend.
"He left me something special."
An LAPD statement said that a second pedestrian suffered moderate injuries after being hit by the debris from the collision, but they are expected to recover.
Police arrested the driver, 22-year-old North Hills resident Joseph Delgado, after he exited his car and ran from the area on foot without stopping to offer help to the injured people.
He has been booked for murder, police said.
Anyone with further information on the crash is asked to contact LAPD at (818) 644-8000.