A $50,000 reward was being offered Saturday morning for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hit-and-run driver who killed a 37-year-old father of two while he was riding a bike with his kids in the South Los Angeles area.
Jorge Guerra was injured at 8:40 p.m. July 8 on Wadsworth Avenue north of 88th Street, and died on July 16 at a hospital, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and the coroner’s office.
“Mr. Jorge Guerra and his two young children were riding their bicycles northbound on Wadsworth Avenue north of 88th Street (when) a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed struck them from behind causing Jorge to sustain life-threatening injuries,” an LAPD statement said. “The children were not seriously hurt.”
The man driving the 1997 Honda Accord kept going, and the car crashed into three parked vehicles near Manchester Boulevard, where the suspect got out and ran, police said.
“He was followed by citizens but was able to evade capture,” police said.
At a vigil Friday night near the crash scene, a white “ghost bike” was placed there in Guerra’s honor and his stepdaughter, Bibiana Diaz, chastised the suspect.
“How someone could just tear a family apart like that and have no remorse, to keep going and hit other cars… and still flee the scene, not trying to render help to anybody is really heartless.”
No description was released of the suspect.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call Detective Mike Flannery or Officer Gerald Chavarria of the South Traffic Division at 323-421-2500; the South Traffic Division watch commander at 323-421-2577; or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.