Family members and friends of a 16-year-old boy allegedly targeted by a hit-and-run driver in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles last week attended an emotional vigil Monday evening outside BMO Stadium where the teen was killed.
The deadly Nov. 22 encounter started, according to investigators with the California Highway Patrol, started around 4:30 p.m. with an altercation between a group of 40 bicyclists and a motorist in a blue BMW on Figueroa Street, north of Martin Luther Jr. King Boulevard.
Details are limited and it’s unclear what led to the confrontation, but the situation continued into the parking lot of BMO Stadium, on Exposition Park property, where moments later “he was struck by a separate vehicle, identified as a black Honda sedan,” CHP said in an updated news release Sunday evening.
The driver left the teen, later identified by family as Jonathan “Junior” Flores, in the middle of MLK Boulevard where he was pronounced dead.
Now, his grief-stricken family is left to cope with the terrible loss ahead of Thanksgiving.
“It’s really rough,” Breanna De Leon, the victim’s mother, told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo. “It’s not easy.”
Jonathan’s friends, some of whom were with him that night, have been visiting the crash site to pay their respects.
“To be honest, I’m going to miss him,” Luis Juarez said. “I can’t stop crying. He wasn’t a brother, but I see him as a brother.”
A day after the deadly hit-and-run, CHP detectives issued a search warrant at an L.A. residence believed to be associated with the suspect where they seized two vehicles, a blue 2021 BMW sedan and a black 2018 Honda Accord.
“During the investigation, a 28-year-old Hispanic male from Los Angeles was identified as a person of interest who is believed to have been the driver of the Honda Accord at the time it struck and killed the 16-year-old juvenile,” CHP added.
So far, the 28-year-old has not been arrested.
“It’s not fair he took off, leaving somebody just lying there dying,” Sandra De Leon, Jonathan’s aunt, said. “It’s heartbreaking, 16 years old. He wasn’t there for him.”
As for the teen’s mother, she wants justice.
“This guy took his life,” she said. “He knew what he was doing, and he did it on purpose. That’s not okay. I hope get justice for Junior.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been organized to help with the cost of laying Jonathan to rest.