Philadelphia police ID 75-year-old man killed in South Philly hit-and-run
Police are still looking for a driver who fled the scene of a deadly crash in South Philadelphia Saturday night.
A 75-year-old man is dead after the driver of a white Ford van lost control of the vehicle and hit a parked Chevrolet Express van that was unoccupied near the 1100 block of South 11th Street, according to police.On Sunday night, police identified the 75-year-old as John McDermott from Philadelphia.
At around 10:40 p.m., McDermott was standing between the Chevrolet Express van and a parked Land Rover at the time of the crash.
The impact from the crash led the Chevrolet van to pin McDermott up against the Land Rover. The man driving the Ford van got out of the car and tried to pull McDermott out, but he wasn't able to. Police said the driver then ran off and left the Ford van at the scene, which was later towed by police.
McDermott died at a nearby hospital just after 11 p.m. on Saturday, police said.
A video obtained by CBS News Philadelphia shows the moment when police say the driver lost control and caused the deadly chain reaction crash.
Mike Borda was just feet away from the corner and witnessed the incident.
"I just heard, boom! Real big, then a second boom, and then I looked down, and it was his legs," Borda said. "And I said, 'Oh my God, it's a body!'"
In the video, McDermott can be seen carrying a bag of groceries as he walks down 11th Street.
"I seen all the groceries and everything, there were groceries everywhere," Borda said.
Borda said he ran to the nearby police station to alert first responders. When they showed up, Denise Gentile heard sirens and rushed outside her home, which is just down the block.
"It actually looked like a scene from a movie, it was horrific," she said. "I saw them bringing him on the stretcher into the ambulance."
Borda said he can't believe how the driver walked away from the scene so casually.
"He just looked at the body, he looked like he was in shock, and then he just turned around and just strolled off," he said.
By Sunday afternoon, flowers had been placed at the corner where the crash had happened.
"I just hope that you can understand how tragic this must be for the victim's family, and you will just come forward," Gentile said.
The crash remains under investigation.
