Rewards offered in two hit-run crashes that killed child and left mom, toddler injured
Police urged drivers to be especially alert to children and pedestrians in city streets as the weather warms.
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CITY OFFICIALS are offering rewards for tips to help them catch the heartless drivers who mowed down two children and a young mother in separate hit-and-run incidents Monday night, leaving a 4-year-old dead and a 19-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son critically injured.
In the first incident, a woman driving a black Ford Edge hit a 4-year-old boy - who police sources identified as Abdul Wilson - as he darted into 57th Street near Litchfield in Kingsessing about 6:30 p.m. The impact threw Abdul forward onto the road - where the woman kept going and drove over him. He died at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia within the hour of severe head injuries.
Late last night at an underground parking garage at 16th Street near Arch in Center City, investigators recovered the Edge allegedly involved in the crash, according to a source in the Accident Investigation Division.
An attorney representing the 27-year-old woman who was allegedly behind the wheel during the crash has contacted detectives, the source said.
The woman, considered a person of interest in the case, was expected to meet with police sometime today.
Police believe the driver saw Abdul, because she swerved slightly, as seen in surveillance footage taken from a nearby corner store.
Still, she could have dodged criminal charges if she had stopped - unless she was intoxicated or otherwise impaired - because she didn't appear to be speeding and the child darted into the street between parked cars, said Capt. John Wilczynski, commander of the Accident Investigation Division.
Instead, she now faces an automatic one-year jail term for fleeing the scene of a fatal crash, he added.
In the second incident, two men in a newer-model white Acura or Infiniti hit a 19-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son as the pair crossed Mascher Street near Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia's Fairhill section. The sedan never slowed as it turned onto Lehigh. The car should have some front-end damage, as investigators found glass at the scene, Wilczynski said.
The boy remained in critical condition last night at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, and his mother was released from Temple University Hospital yesterday, Wilczynski said.
A $10,000 reward is posted in that case.
"What we really need is some help from the public," Wilczynski said. "There was a lot of people out there. We're just hoping that someone out there can get us some information about either crash."
He urged motorists to be aware of children and other pedestrians in the streets.
"Everybody has to be aware that this time of year, the little ones are going to be out there, and they're going to run out there [in the road]," Wilczynski said. "Happens every spring and summer. Just exercise caution . . . people are responsible to stop."