Public Help Sought in Hit-Run Death of Boy : Tragedy: The parents of a 4-year-old San Gabriel child appeal for assistance in finding the speeding driver.

The parents of a 4-year-old San Gabriel boy appealed Wednesday for public help in finding the hit-and-run driver who struck and killed the child as he stepped from the curb while holding his mother’s hand.

Kenny Ly was struck by a speeding car at 3 p.m. Monday as he stepped into the street in the 1500 block of Gladys Avenue in San Gabriel. He was pronounced dead 12 hours later at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. His mother was not injured.

“Our son is gone forever,” said Cap Thoi Ly, 41, the child’s father. “Finding the person who struck him won’t bring him back, but it will bring us a little peace of mind.”

San Gabriel police said they have little to go on, even though five people, including both parents, witnessed the accident. Police described the car as a blue or green four-door sedan. No one got the car’s license number.

One witness told police the driver laughed after the accident, then nearly hit the curb as he fled.

On Wednesday, Cap Thoi Ly, tightly holding a picture of his only child, said he and his wife, Su Ping Ly, 34, had taken Monday off to spend with family and friends.

After lunch at a Chinese restaurant, the Lys dropped off the friends across the street from their Gladys Avenue home, then arranged to get together later in the evening.

As the friends crossed the street, Kenny got out of the car with his mother. “Are you coming over? We’ll be waiting for you!” he called to one of the friends, Dr. Ywei So, whom he affectionately knew as “grandpa.” Then, holding his mother’s hand, Kenny took one step from the curb. A car, which police said was traveling about 40 miles per hour in the 25-m.p.h. zone, struck him and knocked him 68 feet.

“I saw the car approaching from my rear view mirror,” said Cap Thoi Ly, a computer technician. “I saw with my own eyes my son being hit and thrown in the air. . . . The car didn’t even try to stop or slow down.”

Looking down at his son’s picture, he said the hardest thing has been coming home and seeing his son’s toys and clothes. “Every time I came home he would say, ‘Daddy, come read with me,’ and he would tell me what he did in (preschool),” Ly said.

“He had just started preschool in March. . . . He already knew all the numbers up to 100 and he knew his ABCs,” added Ly, trying to hold back tears as his wife wept during a news conference. “How are you supposed to cope with something like this?”

Kenny is at least the third Los Angeles County child to die in a traffic accident this week. A 7-year-old South Los Angeles boy, Fabian Denson, was killed in a hit-and-run accident Sunday. A 37-year-old suspect is in custody in the case.

Also killed Sunday was 6-year-old Rachel Perez of Canoga Park, who was struck by a motorcycle in Pacoima and killed. The motorcyclist was booked on suspicion of manslaughter, police said.

San Gabriel Police Capt. David Lawton said there have been eight hit-and-run accidents in which people were struck this year in the city. But he said this is the first hit-and-run death since 1988.

“This is one of the most tragic accidents I’ve seen,” Lawton said. “He was only 4 years old. He had his whole life in front of him. And the most traumatic part is that it happened right in front of the family.”

Police encourage anyone with information to call the San Gabriel Police Department’s Traffic Bureau at (818) 308-2828.