A New York mother is pleading for information about who killed her son in a hit-and-run crash after the boy heroically leaped in front of an oncoming vehicle and pushed his sister out of harm’s way to save her, WNBC-TV reports.
On October 12, Tyler Phillips and his sister, Krystal Randolph, were walking home around 7:30 p.m. when someone driving an SUV struck them in a bike lane on a Long Island road.
Phillips, a 13-year-old middle schooler, died several days later when he was taken off life support. His injuries included internal bleeding and brain damage after his spinal cord was severed.
Randolph, 14, sustained severe injuries.
The children’s mother, Desira Mack, told the Daily Mail that she is heartbroken by what has happened.
“I am a total mess right now,” Mack told the Daily Mail. “He was amazing, stubborn, cranky, crazy at times but he was an amazing boy. He’s a hero,” she said of her son.
Mack is calling for safety improvements to the road where the hit-and-run occurred and better enforcement of the speed limit.
Steffani Campbell, a family friend, told the television station that she witnessed the tragedy.
“The car hit her first and I guess he went to jump and grab her, and it just took him,” Campbell told WNBC-TV. “She said she watched him fly to the middle of the street and she called an ambulance. They told her to give him CPR and that was it.”
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Randolph says her brother, who had just turned 13 one day before being struck, saved her life.
“He saved my life,” Randolph told WNBC-TV. “He was a hero. He will always be a hero,” she said, echoing her mother.
Investigators are searching for a dark-colored Chevrolet Equinox likely manufactured between 2005 and 2009. The passenger headlight and mirror were damaged, and the side view front passenger mirror was broken.
A $5,000 cash reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest. To report information about the case, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
Mack said she has a message for whoever was driving the SUV that crashed into her kids.
“Come forward. Stop playing around. What you are doing, just come forward,” Mack told the Daily Mail. “My son needs justice. I need justice.”
A GoFundMe account has been established to help the family.
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[Featured image: GoFundMe]
