Woman dies of injuries suffered in hit-and-run
40-year-old recalled as mom, fun, ‘crazy auntie’
Angel Garza “was not just another homeless person” on the streets of Las Vegas, her sister said.
She was a mother to two daughters and a son, a sister to four siblings and a “fun and crazy auntie to a whole flock of nieces and nephews,” Dawn Moki Conol wrote in a Gofundme campaign she created to assist with her sister’s cremation costs.
Money raised also will fund future travel expenses for Garza’s family to attend upcoming court hearings for 19-year-old Jabarie Norris, the suspect in the crash that killed the 40-year-old woman and her dog.
Around 12:45 a.m. Oct. 16, police said, Garza, who was homeless, was walking her dog while pushing a shopping cart on East Gowan Road, west of North Nellis Boulevard. She was in the middle of the road when a 2002 Infiniti I30 driven by Norris struck her and her Chihuahua, which she often carried on her shoulder like a parrot, her family said.
According to the Gofundme, Garza’s injuries included a skull fracture, a broken pelvis and broken arms and legs. Her left kidney, liver, heart and lungs were also “damaged beyond repair.”
“Her body could just not heal,” Conol wrote.
Garza died Friday of multiple blunt force injuries at University Medical Center, according to the Clark County coroner’s office. One of her sisters was at at her side when she died.
Garza will be remembered for her “wicked sense of humor that would leave us all laughing until our cheeks and sides ached,” Conol wrote. She also described her sister as a selftaught artist and muralist, creating art that “seemed to just flow from her soul to her pencils and brushes.”
“Our world will be a little less colorful and beautiful,” Conol wrote in the Gofundme, “and not as bright since her light had to leave us.”
Norris briefly stopped after the impact but then sped away. He and the vehicle were found “a short time later,” police said, and he was arrested for failing to stop at the scene of a crash, jail records show.
It was the 115th fatal crash investigated by Las Vegas police this year, according to Metro records.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.