Sandy Vasquez and her 13-year old son, Ethan, were driving west through the M Streets Tuesday morning, apparently en route to school at William B. Travis Academy, when a stolen minivan ran a stop sign and broadsided their Nissan Versa.
The car, as the photos show was demolished. Vasquez was taken to Baylor Hospital with critical injuries. Ethan, the son of a Cedar Hill police sergeant and by all accounts a kind and intelligent kid, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.
The task now turns to finding driver of the stolen SUV, who promptly fled the scene on foot.
"[W]e need someone to come forward that knows who the suspects are," Dallas Police Chief David Brown tweeted this morning.
Right now, there's not a lot to go on. The main witness to the crash, a driver idling at a stop sign at the Homer Street/Monticello intersection, was too busy aiding Vasquez to see who was in the minivan. Cops say one suspect was believed to be wearing a white shirt and white cap and was probably bleeding but have no further suspect description; they're not even sure if there was one person in the stolen vehicle or more than one.
Basically, what they know is that the minivan was reported stolen in March, and that Highland Park police started chasing it at about 8:15 a.m. but stopped when it crossed into the city of Dallas.
Oak Farms has offered a $10,000 reward for information that helps solve the crime, which is being classified as a murder. Crime Stoppers has chipped in an additional $5,000.
Send your story tips to the author, Eric Nicholson.
