17-Year-Old Killed In Queens Hit-And-Run
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A teenager on his way home from a funeral was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident in Queens.
Ovidio Jaramillo, 17, was trying to cross Northern Boulevard at Junction Boulevard in Jackson Heights just before 11 p.m. Tuesday when police said he was struck by a black Toyota Camry.
"I didn't see traffic at the moment, but within a second this black car came out of nowhere, I mean he was really traveling very fast," eyewitness Edwin Lopez told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck. "When he hit him instead of slowing down he accelerated...He flew across the street and landed over there by the drain. I checked him, he was done. There was nothing I could do."
Jaramillo was taken to Elmhurst Hospital where he died.
The NYPD combed a busy Queens intersection looking for any clue that might lead them to the driver that hit and killed the teen.
Jaramillo lived three blocks away on 95th Street with his parents and grandmother. He attended St. John's Preparatory School.
Queens family mourns loss of teen killed by hit run driver on northern boulevard #1010WINS pic.twitter.com/BLJh5za0rc
— glenn schuck (@glennschuck) December 9, 2015
His grandmother, Laura Valle, is begging the driver to turn himself or herself in and explain how this happened.
"I loved him very much, he was my only grandson," Valle told CBS2's Diane Macedo in Spanish.
Neighbors and friends are shocked and are also asking the driver to come forward.
"He was a really nice kid, very polite and I can't believe that he's gone," Jaramillo's neighbor said.
"Ovidio was probably, I'm going to be honest, one of the most polite young men you could come across," neighbor Magreen Richards said.
"I'm still in shock, I started crying like crazy," said Katherine Aponte, who tutored Jaramillo as a young kid. "I saw the kid growing up and he looked up to me as a big sister."
"He was always the nicest person ever. You'd see this kid all the time on the block if anybody needed help," said Luis Tavera, who was part of a group of teens on the block who grew up with Jaramillo. "How can you just go by, hit somebody, then drive right off. Don't you feel guilty?"
Police are asking anyone with information to contact them immediately.