Investigators Wednesday were trying to identify the driver of a vehicle that failed to stop after striking and fatally injuring a 19-year-old man who was on his way to get a soda in Atwater Village.
The victim, Ryan Coreas, was crossing Fletcher Drive outside a marked crosswalk just south of Laclede Avenue about 11:10 p.m. Dec. 28 when he was struck, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
A gold or beige minivan being driven south on Fletcher Drive and a red pickup truck with a mattress in its bed were spotted in the area and either may have hit Coreas, according to the LAPD.
Surveillance video secured by police shows the young man walking and the red pickup truck being driven at the location.
The driver never stopped or slowed down to aid the injured teen, who was in serious condition when taken to a hospital. Relatives told reporters Coreas died Monday at County-USC Medical Center, where he had been in a coma.
Coreas was on his way to a liquor store to get a soda when he was struck, family members said.
Police believe either the minivan, which had a luggage rack on its roof, or the pickup truck would have sustained front-end damage as a result of the crash.
“I just have a message to the driver,” Ryan’s father Edwin Coreas told KCAL9. “Whoever you are, just come forward, just come forward, that’s all.”
Coreas’ aunt Olivia Valle told the station she and the rest of her family were in pain and mourning.
“We need justice,” she said. “It’s not fair to us.”
Anyone with information that could help identify the hit-and-run driver was urged to call the LAPD’s Central Traffic Division at (213) 833-3713. Tipsters can also call the LAPD’s 24-hour tipline at (877) 527-3247 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.
Tipsters can receive up to $25,000 from the city’s new “Hit and Run Reward Program Trust Fund” for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the driver or civil resolution of the case.
–City News Service