The 6900 block of Hemlock Avenue would have been dark at 9:30 Tuesday night. There are no street lights, just whatever light spills over from the adjacent apartment buildings. It would have been hard to see a couple of kids playing in the grass on the side of the road, and all but impossible to stop if one of them suddenly darted into the road.
It would also be all but impossible for the driver of what witnesses described as a black 2008 Chrysler sedan to not realize it when he hit a 7-year-old girl. The girl was struck by the front of the car and thrown into the air; another driver, paused at a stop sign at Melody Lane and Hemlock, saw the whole thing and followed the Chrysler driver when it became clear he or she was driving away.
Police have not yet released the girl's name. Someone, a "private citizen," scooped her body from the road and took her to Presbyterian Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police say they are compiling additional information.
Update at 10:43 a.m.: NBC 5's Jeff Smith is identifying the girl as Melanny Valdez, a first grader at nearby Jack Lowe Elementary. Family members tell him it was a truck that hit her, not a sedan as the police report described.
Melanny Valdez went to Jack Lowe Elementary, less than a half mile away, was walking home with big group @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/1NSF0Ez5YT
— Jeff Smith (@JeffSmithNBC5) March 19, 2014Send your story tips to the author, Eric Nicholson.
