‘We are looking for justice.’ Family grieves for 2-year-old killed in hit-and-run crash
Maritza Cherident loved to laugh, play and walk through the aisles of her church, visiting with congregants.
“Everyone loved her so much,” Jackson Janvier, pastor of The Clinic of Restoration Church of God in Northwest Miami-Dade, said of the 2-year-old. “She was very friendly with everyone.”
Maritza, who had a “beautiful smile,” lost her life in a hit-and-run accident that also injured her parents last week. Now, her grieving parents — who are Haitian and came to Miami from Chile in September — and her church family are planning a funeral.
“They are not doing well,” Janvier said of Maritza’s parents, Mikenson Cherident and Mirtha Bazile. “She was her dad’s only child. He doesn’t know what to do without her.”
And adding to their pain: No one has been charged in the April 27 crash in the area of Northwest 10th Avenue and 116th Terrace.
“We are looking for justice,” Janvier said.
Police have not released a description of the vehicle and are asking for the community’s help in finding the car and driver.
“Leaving the scene of an accident is a criminal offense,” said Chris Thomas, a Miami-Dade police spokesman. “We want to appeal to that person to come forward and give their side of the story.”
Maritza and her parents were walking to a grocery store at about 9:30 p.m. when they were hit. Police say they were walking west across Northwest 12th Avenue when a car heading north hit them.
“When the car hit me, me and my wife were on the ground,” Cherident told Miami Herald news partner CBS4 through a translator. “I cannot remember anything. I thank God I have a pastor to help us. We will never forget my daughter.”
After the accident, all three family members were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where the toddler died.
Cherident and Bazile have since been released, but both are still in a lot of physical and emotional pain, Janvier said.
Anyone with information is asked to call MiamiDade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477).