Hit-and-Run Driver Struck Victim Intentionally Over Traffic Dispute, Police Say

A Chatsworth teen-ager who was killed this week by a hit-and-run driver was intentionally run down after a “senseless” traffic dispute, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

Police were still looking for the car and driver who killed Michael Duitsman, 19, early Monday morning in the 19700 block of Plummer Street in Chatsworth. Duitsman, the son of a Los Angeles police detective, and several friends had left a house where they were having a party to apparently try to slow a car that was speeding up and down the street.

The party-goers at first thought they knew the driver of the white Mustang, but after the car passed by them they realized the two men in it were strangers. Police said obscenities were then exchanged and a passenger in the car fired a blank shot from a gun and threw a bottle at the party-goers.

On its last pass by the house, the Mustang picked up speed and drove directly at Duitsman, who was standing in the first lane of the four-lane street. He was struck and killed instantly about 2:50 a.m.

“The fact that the car sped up before knocking him down makes it seem like a willful act,” said Detective Tim Moss.

Moss said it was unclear why Duitsman had walked into the street. Several hours earlier, he had helped mediate an argument at the party where the teen-agers were drinking, and police speculated that he may have been attempting to calm the dispute in the street.

Detectives initially believed that a boy who had been ejected from the party was involved in the hit-and-run, but he was dismissed as a suspect after being interviewed.

The investigators on Wednesday began circulating photos of a late ‘80s model Mustang with gray or silver stripes to police, media and body shops in the area in an effort to locate the hit-and-run car. Moss said the car would have substantial damage to the right side of the front end, including a broken headlight and turn signal, from striking Duitsman.

Detectives also said they were looking for a motorist who witnessed the incident and apparently tried to stop the Mustang. Moss said a blue passenger van was driving next to the Mustang and after Duitsman was run down the van driver followed the Mustang, honking the van’s horn and flashing its headlights. But the motorist never contacted police.

Duitsman was the son of Fred Duitsman, a supervising detective in the West Valley Division. He formerly attended Chatsworth High School and Stoney Point continuation school and was described as being popular and having friends in the Chatsworth area.

Police said Wednesday that Fred Duitsman was too distraught to discuss his son’s death. On Monday the detective went to work at 5:30 a.m., unaware that his son had not come home from the party the night before. On the way, he had to make a detour around Plummer, which was closed during the hit-and-run investigation. After arriving at the station in Reseda, another detective informed him of his son’s death.