July 25, 2007 Neighbors catch driver after boy, 9, dies in hit-and-run

Following article was published by the Houston Chronicle.

Roy Lopez, 9, died Wednesday after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in southeast Houston. The driver, a 19-year-old woman, and a passenger in her car were taken into custody.

A 9-year-old boy died Wednesday after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in southeast Houston, police said. Hours after being killed, the unidentified boy's body lay in a ditch covered by a yellow tarp in the 9600 block of Avenue J.

His bicycle and a green car bumper — belonging to the car that struck him — were nearby. Police said the boy was struck by a woman who lost control of her car about 5:30 p.m. as he played in a neighbor's driveway, a short distance away from his home. The driver, a 19-year-old woman, drove away in her Accord, leaving car parts behind, police said.

Stunned and angry neighbors, who witnessed the hit-and-run, chased the woman until she stopped a few blocks away from what now had become a crime scene.

The unidentified woman and a male passenger were taken into custody. Charges of felony hit-and-run were pending late Wednesday, police said. The woman showed little emotion after being taken into custody, said officer J. T. Walsh, an HPD spokesman. "She was passive," Walsh said. "It was unusual from what you would think."

Neighbors said children are often riding their bikes and playing in the east Houston Manchester neighborhood. They are constantly in danger, said neighbors, because of misplaced stop signs and speeding cars. "They freak us out," said Bianca Torres, 8.

Maria Torres, whose son often rides his bike throughout the day, said her 7-year-old daughter, Destinee, and another girl were almost killed by a truck last year. The two survived only because they fell in a ditch, and the truck rolled over them without seriously injuring either. "They barely made it," she said.

Torres said the stop signs on 96th and the parallel streets are in "odd places." She said the signs should be on Avenue J and the parallel streets because the houses sit on those streets, and that is where the children play. The signs would slow vehicles down, Torres said.

Susie Campos, whose children all grew up in Manchester, said that drivers who don't live in their neighborhood have been speeding down the streets with no regard for the stop signs.