Authorities in a California community are searching for a hit-and-run suspect following a collision that killed two young brothers on Friday.
Police in Antioch – about 45 miles east of San Francisco – responded to a reported traffic collision at an intersection around 11:30 pm, the Antioch Police Department said in a statement.
Officers arrived at the scene of an accident involving two vehicles, including one carrying two boys, aged 12 and 13.
The boys – who have not yet been identified publicly – were transported by ambulance to area hospitals but died of their injuries, police said.
The driver of one of the vehicles, believed to be a black SUV, fled on foot.
Authorities in a California community are trying to find the suspect in a hit-and-run collision that killed two young brothers on Friday
Police in Antioch – about 45 miles east of San Francisco – responded to a reported traffic collision at an intersection around 11:30 pm, the Antioch Police Department said in a statement
A witness reported seeing a black SUV speed past that police claimed smashed into a fire hydrant. The driver is believed to have fled on foot
‘It appears speed and reckless driving were factors in this incident,’ the police statement said.
A witness reported seeing the SUV speed past which appears to have then smashed into a blue sedan as well as fire hydrant.
He heard a crash and went to the scene, where he found a person still in the blue car, KGO-TV reported.
The witness, Maurice Howell, said he helped the man, believed to be the father of the two boys, and together they removed one of the younger boys from his car.
‘The gentlemen said get his kids. So we opened the back door to get his kids. The back door was too hard to (open). We opened the front door and we got the little boy out,’ he said.
The father, Howell added, tried to put on of his sons under the water coming from the fire hydrant in hopes that he’d merely passed out. Howell said he never responded.
Another neighbor told KTVU that he had heard the crash and quickly went outside.
‘Myself and other people from the neighborhood were breaking the car doors open, trying to get the young man out,’ he said.
In the haste of trying to help the boys, a witness saw two people running from the scene
‘It appears speed and reckless driving were factors in this incident,’ the police statement said
In the haste of trying to help the boys, he noticed two people running from the scene.
‘I just saw people running. Nobody cares who running, we are just trying to save people’s lives,’ he said.
The witness added that it was a gruesome scene and the boys were clearly in dire conditions when they found them.
‘There was blood all over his face. He was knocked out. I don’t know if it was his brother or cousin or whoever, it was two young men. And we just pulled him out and started praying over him.’
‘And they were young. All you could see was they were youth in their faces.’
By the next morning, the fire hydrant had been repaired by was still gushing water into a nearby gutter.
The Antioch police asked members of the public with any information to contact the department.