Hit-run driver left child ‘thrown down like an animal,’ distressed mother says
Sniffing back tears outside a hospital, Reina Gutierrez pleaded for a hit and run driver and witnesses to come forward while her son recovers from injuries sustained when struck on an electric scooter in Fort Lauderdale.
“This person left my son thrown down like an animal in the road,” Gutierrez said in Spanish as Police Major Frank Sousa translated her comments.
“I beg of you,” she said, at a news conference Tuesday. “If you saw anything please come forward.”
Gutierrez’s son, Alexis, 14, is in serious condition at Broward Health Medical Center.
He was taken there with multiple fractures and a head injury following the crash that happened shortly before 4 a.m. Dec. 1 while riding an electric scooter on the 600 block of North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale.
“He was out with his siblings celebrating a friend’s birthday,” she said. “My oldest son told me they were renting scooters but I didn’t know about their plans to ride so late,” Reina Gutierrez said.
Investigators think the car that struck Alexis Gutierrez may have been a 4-door, maroon Acura or Honda. The driver may have been a woman with short, dark curly hair, Sousa said.
So far, no surveillance video or photos of the crash have been dis-
covered.
Whether the teen was riding on the sidewalk or the road when he was hit isn’t known because his older brother and sister, who are both in their 20s, were riding in front of him when the crash happened.
Reina Gutierrez says the ordeal has been difficult for her and her family.
“Put yourself in my shoes at the hospital with a son during the holidays,” she said.
Fort Lauderdale police ask anyone with information about the incident to call Traffic Homicide Investigator Jill Hirsch at 954-828-5753 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.
The organization accepts anonymous tips and will pay up to $3,000 for information that leads to an arrest.