Police are on the lookout for the car that hit a 4-year-old girl walking to school on Oct. 18, according to WGCL, and said Thursday that they are using forensic science to lead them in the right direction.
Officers who oversee the jurisdiction of Clarkston, Georgia, a city approximately 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, said they used a paint chip and a lens from a passenger-side headlight to determine the car that struck and killed Lun Thang, 4. They believe the vehicle is a charcoal-colored Toyota Camry, a 2000 or 2001 model with distinctive features they described in the press release.
Investigators said the driver hit Lun while her aunt walked her and her 6-year-old sister to their elementary school. The child was struck and killed just feet from her school, where a makeshift memorial now sits in her honor, according to WGCL.
Police said crossing guards had not yet arrived at the school at the time of the accident, according to WGCL.
School district officials reportedly told crossing guards to arrive at their posts a half-hour earlier each school day, as a result of Lun’s tragic death.
“I saw her lots of many times when I used to go to the pre-K hallway,” student Natnael Tekle told a CBS46 reporter.
“My heart was broken when I first saw. I feel bad for the pre-K. She’s only four years old,” she added.
“I didn’t see the accident, but I did witness the little girl on the ground,” said Yvette Westbrook to a WGCL reporter. “It was sad.”
Westbrook told WGCL she would often see Lun’s family, along with other families, trying to cross the street with vehicles passing.
She added, “It’s almost as if drivers try to hurry through the school zone before the crossing guards arrive so they won’t be forced to slow down.”
She pointed out to WGCL a streetlight that flickers on and off, which she said makes it difficult at certain times to see pedestrians crossing.
Meanwhile, Lun’s father told WGCL his family is devastated.
“You have to pray for me, everybody and my family,” he told a WGCL reporter in broken English.
A police officer told WGCL their department plans to petition the county to fix the streetlight Westbrook referred to.
Anyone with information regarding this incident can call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS.
[Featured image: CBS46/WGCL]
