Authorities Tuesday released security video of a car driven by a possibly distracted hit-and-run motorist responsible for fatally injuring a woman who was walking her grandchildren home from school in La Mirada last month.
Maria Chavarria, 68, died at a hospital after being struck from behind about 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 20 in the 14800 block of Escalona Road.
Chavarria’s grandchildren, a boy and girl who attend nearby Escalona Elementary School, were also injured but survived. The family lives near the site where the woman was killed.
Chavarria was the mother to three and grandmother of 15.
Sheriff’s Capt. James Tatreau said witnesses saw the driver on a cellphone as he drove the gray, 2015-17 Toyota Camry four-door.
“This hit and run left two children injured and on the street alone with their grandmother who was dying while waiting for us to respond to the is call,” Tatreau said at a news conference at the sheriff’s Norwalk Station, where officials announced a $5,000 reward offered by the city of La Mirada for help in solving the case.
“We need justice for my mom,” Jeannette Chavarria said at a news conference Tuesday morning at the sheriff’s Norwalk Station. “What this person has done is heartless and it’s inhumane … we have to wake up every single day and try to live life.”
The hit-and-run vehicle was described as a 2015-17 dark gray Toyota Camry. No description was released of the man who was driving the Toyota.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff’s Norwalk Station at (562) 863-8711 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.