Police are looking for a hit-and-run driver after fatally hitting a father of five in Long Beach.
Eduardo “Tito” Corral died Tuesday in a hospital, four days after he was struck near the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Market Street.
His relatives remember him as a cheerful, always respectful man and an exemplary father. For his friends, he was simply “Boy”.
Now everyone is mourning his death.
“It’s something I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know if I should be angry, I don’t know if I should be sad, I don’t know if I should feel lost. I don’t know,” said Petrie Cruz, the deceased’s sister.
The accident happened on April 14, shortly after 9 p.m., when Corral, 41, was hit by a car whose driver failed to stop to help him. The victim was taken to hospital where he was declared brain dead.
Officers found him in the middle of Atlantic Avenue, north of 53rd Street, around 9:16 p.m.
“(The) most important thing for us is to find the person who did this to my brother,” said Andrea Lopez, sister of Eduardo Cruz. “We need answers, we need to know why they didn’t stop, why they didn’t help.”
Cruz died on Tuesday, April 18, after four days in a coma and disconnected from the artificial system that kept him alive.
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“It was four days so long that I don’t know if the day was over,” Petrie Cruz said. “Every day we were waiting for news but we didn’t get the news we expected.”
“Besides his mother and two sisters, Roberto Cruz leaves behind his wife and five children, aged 19 to 3 years old.
“He has five children and we don’t have answers for them,” Andrea Lopez said. “My brother was very young, he had a long life that we wanted him to live, and unfortunately he left very early.”
Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact LBPD Detective Shawn Loughlin at 562-570-7355.
Anonymous tips may be submitted through LA Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), downloading the “P3 TIPS” app, or visiting the LA Crime Stoppers website. LA Crime Stoppers.