Jimmy Chavarria was hit and killed on February 26 while crossing Hoover Street in South Los Angeles with his wife and 2-year-old son.
The family was on their way to Saturday night services at a nearby church, said Jay Hom, a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department.
The collision occurred in a crosswalk where flashing yellow pedestrian lights had just been installed.
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"While the vehicles were stopped, one driver was impatient. The driver dodged traffic from the northbound lanes going through the southbound lanes and hit the Chavarria family," Hom said.
Chavarria saw the collision coming so he pushed his wife out of the way, then threw his son onto the sidewalk.
The man was struck by the vehicle and died at a hospital.
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"It hurts me a lot, I miss him a lot. My 2-year-old son asks about his father and I don't know what to tell him," said Angélica, Chavarría's widow, at a press conference.
"In his last moments he executed
an amazing act of heroism
," Detective Ryan Moreno said at the news conference.
[Hispanic officer killed in Houston just hours after the murder of another Latino police officer]
"
I forgive you, but you have to pay for what you did
. I don't want you to do this again, for another family to feel this pain," said the widow.
Police say the vehicle was a light-colored sedan, and may have been a Nissan Altima and was missing the right front wheel cap.
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Before the fatal crash, surveillance video caught the suspect vehicle nearly running a red light and narrowly missing another collision after the incident, police said.
Investigators believe the driver lives in that area.
There is no physical description of the shooter, so a $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this incident.
With information from
KTLA
and
CBSLA