CBS2 Exclusive: Good Samaritan Comforts Man Before He Dies In Bronx Hit-And-Run
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police late Thursday were looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed a 72-year-old man as he was crossing the street in the Bronx.
CBS2's Jessica Moore spoke exclusively with the man who found the victim lying in the road, and did his best to help.
Police said the driver of a black Ford Fusion was coming down Richardson Avenue and turning onto Nereid Avenue in the Wakefield section of the Bronx Thursday morning, when he hit the man and sped away.
Crime scene detectives blocked off a section of Nereid Avenue as they combed the scene looking for clues.
People who live and work nearby are shocked and saddened that the driver would be so careless with a man's life -- and were pleading with the person to come clean.
John Kelly pulled up to the intersection at 10:30 a.m. and found the man lying in the street.
"I held his hand. I told him everything's going to be all right; to relax. I told him to close his eyes; say a prayer. I said, 'Talk to God,'" Kelly said.
Moore asked what made Kelly so compassionate that he lay down an d held the man's head.
"I would like somebody to do it for me," Kelly said.
The man was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died. Police late Thursday were waiting to notify the family before releasing his identity.
Neighbors said the light at Nereid and Richardson avenues changes too fast, 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported.
"Oh my stars, yeah it's dangerous," one woman said.
She said she worries about her children heading to school.
"I have two myself and I watch them until they get all the way to the end, because it's dangerous," she said.
Police are searching for the hit-and-run driver.