Two families are in agony after two young children were struck by a driver while they were off-roading in the High Desert as they celebrated Fourth of July weekend.
California Highway Patrol investigators said the driver left the scene after killing one child and critically injuring the other.
Family members were inside the hospital Tuesday, hoping for a miracle.
They were also demanding that the driver comes forward after he or she left two small children lying on a dirt road.
A 10-year-old boy is killed in off-roading hit-and-run and another child is injured.
“My daughter is 11 years old. She is loved by many people,” Felicia Nunez said.
Her daughter is Christina Bird, who family members say loves to dance. The family shared a video of her with her close friend, 12-year-old Jacob Martinez. They say he’s more like a brother to Christina.
“My nephew was mangled. He was trampled to death,” Daisee Montano said.
On July 2 at around 9 p.m., family members say Jacob and Christina were riding an ATV near their family’s campsite in the Apple Valley Desert when they were struck by another vehicle.
The call came in near the 15 freeway at Stoddard Wells.
The impact so violent, Jacob’s helmet flew off.
“We were told that the first person that tried to perform CPR to my nephew turned him around but the only part that turned was his top half of his body because he was so broken so we knew immediately that he was dead,” Montano said. “And my brother was weeping on the ground to please help his son come back to life.”
Christina is now clinging to life at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
“She has multiple broken bones, broken femurs, fibula. Her spinal cord to her brain was severed,” Felicia Nunez, the girl’s mother, said.
“She’s lying up there right now lifeless and trying to fight for her life,” the victim’s uncle Ernie Nunez said.
CHP investigators are searching for the driver of a 2021 orange Polaris Razor Turbo S or S4.
Witnesses say the driver did stop briefly after the crash, and then turned off the lights before slowly driving away.
“Why flee? Why flee? You left two children to die,” Daisee Montano said.
Family members call the driver a coward for not helping the children. A family member read a statement from Jacob’s father with a powerful promise.
“Jacob: daddy loves you very much and we won’t stop until you get justice,” Kassandra Martinez said.
CHP investigators are asking anyone with information about the case to give them a call.
