Family Mourns 2 Children Killed In Back Of The Yards Crash
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A young mother, forced to deal with the loss of her two young children in a hit and run on Saturday, must now break the tragic news to their father, who was injured in the same crash.
Family members said Sunday the children's father has no idea his kids died in the wreck.
CBS2's Dorothy Tucker has more on family members who also are trying to cope with the loss.
The crash happened around 6:30 p.m. Saturday near 45th Street and Western Avenue, after the SUV got into a minor crash with another vehicle and fled the scene.
"It's just not right. It's not fair," Claudia Cabrera tearfully said of the deaths of her niece and nephew. The spot where they died in the Back of the Yards neighborhood has since been marked with teddy bears and flowers as a memorial to the children.
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Cabrera and the children's grandmother openly wept as they stood there on Sunday.
"They got cheated out of life. That is how I feel, you know? She didn't even walk yet. … She didn't enjoy nothing," Cabrera said.
Police said the children were riding in a Dodge Neon with their parents when a speeding SUV plowed into their car. The driver of the SUV was speeding away from the scene of another crash when he slammed into the neon.
Ten-month-old Julissa Ochoa and 5-year old Eric Ochoa died in the wreck. Their father, Eric Ochoa Sr., was seriously injured and witnesses said their mother, Bernice Cabrera, was the only one who walked away.
"She was hysterical, you know?" eyewitness Anthony Valadez said. "She didn't know which way to go. She was with her daughter. It was a little baby girl and she kept trying to pick her up, but everybody was telling her not to touch her, because the ambulance had said don't touch anybody, don't move them."
At the family home, relatives came in and out, but the children's mother wasn't there on Sunday. Relatives said she spent the day at the hospital, trying to figure out how to tell the children's father they're gone.
"He's not in a stable condition to know yet. They just want him to get better before anything," Cabrera said.
"They were just happy kids, you know? I will miss them," the children's uncle, Magdiel Cabrera, said.
He said their mother wasn't talking after the crash.
"She really wasn't talking. She was quiet. She just can't believe it. None of us can," he added.
Although the mother walked away from the crash, family members said she did suffer a dislocated shoulder in the accident.
The driver of the SUV was taken into custody, but no charges had been filed as of Sunday afternoon.
