A construction worker who was just beginning his workday was fatally run over by a driver who fled in downtown Los Angeles and this afternoon the police asked the public to help find the person responsible.
The accident happened at the intersection of Bonnie Brae and Sixth Streets, shortly after 6 a.m.
A surveillance camera showed street vendors and customers crowding on the sidewalk where Leonidas Rivas, 31, was hit by a vehicle that witnesses say was traveling at high speed.
"It impacted him. He threw the body and it was not enough. It still happened to him and that was what took away his life because he had the two car tires on his chest, "said Marisela Martínez, cousin of the victim.
The police explained with a scheme as Rivas had crossed the street half a block away to buy an atole.
When he saw the police "ticket" he crossed the street and tried to move his vehicle, but when he saw that he was not going to be fined, he crossed the street again and it was when he was run over, said the police.
A security camera recorded the van that the police said was the one that hit Rivas and then fled.
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"A white van, possibly a singular cabin Chevy with a black stretcher, is what they are looking for," said Juan Mendoza, of the LAPD traffic division.
The victim's wife said that the most serious mistake made by the driver that caused the accident is not to have stopped.
"If he had stopped to help him, he would not have died," said the devastated wife of the victim.
Leonidas Rivas had planned a trip to visit his parents in El Salvador.
The police ask anyone who has information about this case to contact the Los Angeles police.
