A driver who allegedly struck a teenager as she walked across a Los Angeles street surrendered to police Wednesday, hours after the girl died in a hospital, officials said.
The crash happened Tuesday about 6:30 p.m. when 17-year-old ReAnna Goss, known by friends as Annie, was walking near 48th Street and Ninth Avenue in Hyde Park, Los Angeles police said.
A blue Toyota Camry struck the girl, and police found the car near the scene a few hours later. Goss died at the hospital Wednesday morning, police said.
Goss' mother, Desiree Gill, said her daughter would've turned 18 in May.
"I thought I would feel something (about the arrest), I thought that I would be like, 'Oh yay,' but I just wasn't. I wasn't," Gill said.
She talked to her daughter on the phone before the crash, and said the teen described a man calling out to her and following her in a car.
"The gentleman that just hit my daughter and just left her for dead ... I just want to know when are we as a community going to get tired of allowing them to get four to eight years for killing our loved ones, but if you use a gun, you get 20 to life," Gill said. "What's the difference in your choice of weapon? You're still killing someone for no reason."
News
Top news of the day
Her family and friends started a fundraising page for her memorial at gofundme.com/weloveannie.
Jesus Palomares Jamie Jr., 30, turned himself in at the police station Wednesday, police said. He was booked on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
