Driver flees after boy, 11, killed Lawndale hit-and-run crash while crossing street: Chicago police
Deadly Lawndale crash 3rd involving a child killed by a vehicle this month
CHICAGO (WLS) -- An 11-year-old boy was hit by a vehicle and killed while crossing the street in Chicago's West Side Lawndale neighborhood Thursday morning, Chicago police said.
CPD said the boy was crossing the street in the 3300-block of West 16th Street about 10:20 a.m. when the vehicle hit him and then drove away in an unknown direction.
He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Chicago police did not immediately release information about the driver or vehicle involved.
A man working nearby, who did not want to be identified, said he heard the crash and stayed with the boy.
"I took off my shirt to stop the bleeding until paramedics came," he said. "It's terrible! It's terrible. We need speed bumps, stop signs. They come flying through here. The speed limit is 20; they doin' 60."
Relatives and authorities said Jalon James died. He and his twin turned 11 in April.
"If you're driving the speed limit, you should be able to hit nobody. If you're watching the roadway, you shouldn't be able to hit anybody," community activist Andrew Holmes said.
He was with his older brother getting milk at the store a couple of blocks from their North Lawndale apartment when he was struck and killed, his family said.
Witnesses said the driver of an SUV stopped but drove off.
"You all just left him there; you didn't stop, you didn't do nothing, just left him there," said Niakya Harrison, the boy's aunt.
Relatives and some familiar with that area said drivers are simply going too fast along 16th --a corridor busy with families and increasingly more kids outside this summer.
"He have a family that really loves him; he's an honor roll student. And it's all messed up. He didn't get to live his life. This is not God's work; this is the devil. It's just a messed up situation," James' cousin Devonna Gates said.
"It's a real sad situation because he's a twin. So it's not just that he's a twin: They are a group of kids that are extremely, extremely close," family friend Marilyn Gooch said.
Jalon's family said the boy was excited for summer, and would have been going into sixth grade.
"He was just the most loving, caring student, and he had such a passion for learning. I don't have much else to say right now. I'm so sorry," his teacher Hannah Haugland said.
The CPD Major Accident Unit is investigating.
The boy is the third child killed by a vehicle in Chicago so far this month.
"They are just coming out and given room and time to play, bike riding. We ask you to drive safe in the community," Robert Calhoun Sr. said.
