Family: Hit-And-Run Victim Suffered Brain Injury
COON RAPIDS (WCCO) -- The mother of the 9-year-old boy who suffered critical injuries after being struck by a pickup truck Wednesday night in a hit-and-run says her son has a brain injury and is sedated.
Ravesha Kechell Harris asked, during a press conference Thursday afternoon at North Memorial Medical Center, for the man who hit her son, Amir Kahron Taylor, to acknowledge his actions.
"If the driver's listening...you know what you did," she said. "You are very aware that you hit a human being. He is a human being. Right now, my son in laying in a bed, fighting for his life."
More than a dozen family members were at the hospital with Harris as she described the hit-and-run. As of Thursday evening, Taylor was in critical condition, but Harris is confident he'll recover.
"He's a fighter and he's a believer," Harris said. "He is so strong."
Taylor suffered critical injuries around 7 p.m. Wednesday, when a pickup hit him near the intersection of 111th Avenue and Kumquat Street Northwest in Coon Rapids, Minn. Taylor was riding his bike at the time. His uncle was the first to reach him after the accident.
"He said he could see the car coming fast, in his peripheral," Harris said. "And by the time he turned around to tell him to slow down, it was too late."
Capt. John Hattstrom, of the Coon Rapids Police Department, called the hit-and-run an egregious crime.
"Very heartless, leaving a 9-year-old in the roadway," he said.
He urged for the suspect to come forward. He said responding officers found Taylor in the road with "multiple injuries on several parts of his body."
The Anoka County Sheriff's Office is asking the public's help in finding the hit-and-run suspect. He is described as a man in his late 20s or early 30s. He has short "scraggly" blonde hair and a scruffy, bearded face. He was not wearing glasses.
On Thursday, police said the vehicle involved in the hit and run is possibly a 2-door extended cab 1993 to 1998 Chevy Z-71 with a short box that is glossy black in color.
Cmdr. Paul Sommer, of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office, said witnesses reported that the truck did not stop at the crash scene, but continued for approximately one block and stopped at the stop sign before driving away.
Witnesses said the truck sustained driver's side damage, and the side mirror was left dangling after the hit-and-run.
"What we know is witnesses say the impact was loud," Sommer said. "I wouldn't speculate on what the driver thought, but from a common sense point of view, I would think if your vehicle is impacted and your mirror was broken off you would be cognizant that you had been involved in a collision of some sort."
If you have any information on the hit-and-run, call police at 763-421-4760.
