Vigil Tonight For 8-Year-Old Killed By Hit-And-Run Driver
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Strangers are expected to join friends and loved ones tonight and gather to remember a child killed in a hit-and-run crash over Spring Break.
A Fort Worth neighborhood will come together for a candlelight vigil tonight. They'll meet at the very spot where a hit-and-run driver took the life of 8-year-old Aja Dakota Hill.
Purple ribbons and bows are easy to spot up and down Barron Lane and a memorial with flowers, balloons and photos now stands as a tribute to Aja.
As the community prepares to remember a child lost in a senseless accident, Jackson is looking beyond her grief and circulating a petition to have speed bumps installed in her Fort Worth neighborhood. Getting those speed bumps is a detailed process that would require a speed survey, accident data, traffic volume and a petition, which they've started on change.org and on paper. In one day, they've collected 97 handwritten signatures and they're going door-to-door for more.
It was on the afternoon of March 17 when Aja rode her scooter in the 1500 block of Barron Lane. A speeding car slammed into the little girl. The driver did not stop to help and fled the scene. The 8-year-old, who was the youngest of five children, was rushed to Cook Children's Medical Center but was later pronounced dead.
Surveillance cameras on a neighbor's home captured a black Dodge Charger on video. Police were able to track down the owner who they've been questioning. So far police haven't said if the owner of the vehicle was the driver or if charges will be filed against that person.
Police have said they are not releasing any specifics on their investigation because their person-of-interest is not in custody.
Jackson has a message for the driver. "You took away everything: marriage, prom, this, that. Things my other kids get to do, she will never be able to do," she said tearfully. Jackson wants the driver punished for killing her daughter but also to be identified and arrested, "So the next kid won't be another victim, like my daughter was."
The family has started a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.
Aja was a first-grader at Atwood McDonald Elementary School in Fort Worth. The school is holding a special remembrance ceremony for her Friday.
The vigil for Aja Hill will begin at 7 p.m. and is being held at 1521 Barron Lane in Fort Worth.