MIAMI – Miami police are investigating a fatal hit-and-run crash that occurred Tuesday night.
According to police, the crash involving a car and a pedestrian was reported at 8:39 p.m. in the area of Southwest Eighth Avenue and Eighth Street in the city’s Little Havana neighborhood. Police said officers arrived at the scene and found a man who had been struck by a car.
Miami Fire Rescue personnel transported him to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he later died. Relatives identified the victim to Local 10 News as 40-year-old Tomas Brito.
“They drove off and left him there. They didn’t stop. They didn’t care that they hit him,” Brito’s son Kaleb Brito said next to his sister Kaydi Brito.
According to authorities, the victim was crossing Eighth Street, from north to south, at Eighth Court.
“I wasn’t even awake yet and my mom walked into my room,” Kaydi Brito said about receiving the tragic news.
Police said the driver would not have been cited since the victim wasn’t supposed to be crossing in that area, but the driver chose to flee the scene and will be criminally charged if found.
“They were wrong on both sides, because the man crossing the street should’ve been attentive, and the driver should’ve looked or stopped,” a man who owns a nearby jewelry business said.
Miami police confirmed Wednesday that they located an abandoned car in the area of Coral Way and Southwest 14th Avenue that may have been the vehicle that struck the victim. The car had damage to the front, including substantial damage to the windshield.
Brito is survived by a son and daughter who live in West Palm Beach, as well as his mother, who he lived with in Miami. Anyone with further information about the hit-and-run is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.