Counselors were on hand at Bell High School Monday as students mourned the loss of a classmate who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while skateboarding.
Joshua Maldonado, 17, was struck around 11:20 p.m. Saturday while skateboarding near Gage and Bear avenues, according to Bell Police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police were asking for the public’s help finding the suspect, who was driving what was described as a late-model, light silver small import vehicle. Sgt. Tom Rodriguez said the vehicle sustained moderate the major front-end damage.
Bell police detectives asked anyone who saw the death to call them at (323) 585-1245, ext. 254.
Meanwhile, friends and relatives were remembering Joshua, who was described as an up-beat teen who was always in good humor.
“My heart is feeling really bad right now,” Joshua’s friend, Mateo Cordova, told KCAL9. “Every day you saw him he was so cheerful. He was happy.”
His brother, Christian, told the station Joshua had a passion for taking pictures and would “skate around everywhere just trying to capture that shot.”
“He was real to who he was, never tried to act like someone he wasn’t,” Christian told Channel 9. “He was very creative.”
—City News Service