The family of a 29-year-old man who police say was run down by a woman driving a stolen car early Thursday in a South Los Angeles neighborhood was dealing with the unthinkable loss, and was expressing frustration that the man was released from a hospital without their knowledge.
You would never think you would bury your own child.
Maurisha Boyd
Marquin Nwude was struck by a car while crossing the street in the Florence-Firestone area Thursday morning at 12:30 a.m.
Maurisha Boyd said she last spoke to her son Sunday.
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"He wasn't OK. He's been having some issues with mental illness," she said. "My son suffered from bipolar depression so he's been having some challenges."
The family thought Nwude was still at a hospital in Hawthorne where he was getting treatment Monday.
"Things have got to change. I literally reached out to the hospital where he was staying on Monday, and they assured me that he was not going to be released," his aunt Michelaye Boyd said.
But several miles from the hospital security cameras capture Nwude crossing the street when a driver identified by authorities as 41-year-old Moneice Newell allegedly ran a red light, hitting and killing him.
The LAPD alleges officers had been chasing the driver because she was in a stolen vehicle.
But police say they stopped the pursuit prior to the crash because it was too dangerous.
"I just hope justice will be done fairly for what has taken place, and she can learn from this and really not take things for granted and get herself in a situation like this," the victim's mother said.
The driver who was being pursued by police is being held without bail.
"I want people to know that he was a person -- he just wasn't a pedestrian on the street -- he wasn't a homeless person who didn't have any family," the victim's aunt said. "Our whole entire family is devastated -- I don't want another family to go through this."
