AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A grieving family visited the site of a deadly hit and run crash that killed a pedestrian Tuesday night.
They identified the victim as 34-year-old Paul Ruiz. They say he was crossing Colfax Avenue at Akron Street when a driver in a car crashed into him. Aurora Police released a surveillance image that showed a driver in a white sedan with tinted windows left the scene.
The victim’s mother said he was going to visit a friend.
“My son had a great heart. My son wouldn’t hurt nobody,” Brenda Cobar told FOX31’s Deborah Takahara.
Ruiz leaves behind three young children and a large family. Many of them visited the intersection where the crash happened to pass out fliers and ask for the community’s help finding the driver that hit him just before midnight on Tuesday.
“If my son would have seen this happen to somebody else, he would’ve stopped and helped. He wouldn’t have left. They left him. They left him to die,” Cobar said
Ruiz was a construction worker who also worked in restaurants. He cared deeply about his family. They have a message for the driver: “He took away a part of me, a part of me that is never going to come back. Please turn himself in. Please have a heart and turn himself in. He needs to pay for what he did,” Cobar said.
“I’m very angry, very angry, but the love I have for my son just keeps me going and going to catch whoever did this. We are not going to stop. We are not going to stop,” Cobar said.
If you have any information that could help find the car and the driver, call our partners at Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP. You can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
The family has started a GoFundMe. You can learn more here.