Hit-And-Run Crash Kills 12-Year-Old Boy, 48-Year-Old Woman In Gage Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Just a day before Christmas, the search is on for a hit and run driver who killed a woman and a 12-year-old boy in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side.
Sources tell CBS 2's Brad Edwards investigators are looking for a dark-colored Chevy Impala, or possibly a Chevy Malibu, based on the evidence gathered in the case. Police have said the vehicle likely has front-end damage near the driver's side headlight assembly area.
Araceli Gutierrez, 48, of Avondale, and 12-year-old Giovanne Bucio, of Gage Park, were crossing the street at 55th and Kedzie shortly after 8 p.m., when a dark-colored vehicle headed west on 55th Street hit them in the crosswalk.
Gutierrez was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Giovanne was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said the driver who hit them sped off, and has not yet been located.
Speeding cars are common in the area, but the chilling sounds heard Wednesday night were not.
"Every night I hear cars just racing down the streets," said one neighbor who asked not to share her identity. "Heard somebody screaming. It breaks my heart. I came home, and I just sat down crying and called my daughter because it's just getting worse. What kind of people are these hit a kid and lady and just take off?"
Saw the aftermath of the deadly hit and run.
"He was bleeding out everywhere," she said.
Giovanne and Gutierrez, a family friend, were picking up some groceries from the nearby Walgreens when a car cut the trip and their lives tragically short.
There was a growing memorial at a nearby intersection Thursday night.
"He has a little 5-year-old brother that's missing him already. Whether they've explained to him or what happened I do not know, but family is terribly shaken by this incident," said community activist Andrew Holmes.
Holmes said the police have leads, but he and the family are hoping the driver turns himself or herself in.
"They are a close-knit family, and they're asking for justice for both of them," he said.
"I don't understand. I really don't. And right before the holidays, now their families are without them. I hope they catch them, I really do," said the neighbor.
The Major Accidents Investigation Unit and Area One detectives are investigating the hit-and-run.
There are security cameras at 55th and Kedzie that might have recorded the hit and run, including two at a Walgreens and a couple more at a Starbucks.
If you have any information about who the driver of that vehicle could be, please contact Chicago Police at 312-745-4521.
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