Hit-Run Driver Kills 5-Year-Old

A teen-ager suspected of running down and killing a 5-year-old Palmdale child was chased and captured by the father of one of the dead boy’s friends, sheriff’s deputies said Sunday.

Deputies credited Phil Jones, 28, with holding the 17-year-old suspect until they could take him into custody. Jones said he had previously warned the young man against speeding through the Ponderosa Vista Mobile Estates mobile-home park, where the hit-and-run accident occurred Saturday evening.

Deputy Ron Giddings said James Michael Hastings was riding his bicycle through the mobile-home park at 40701 Rancho Vista Blvd. in Palmdale when he was hit by a speeding pickup and killed instantly.

Jones, an electrical building materials salesman, said his wife saw the accident occur outside the kitchen window while she was washing the dishes after dinner. “She saw the truck just run over the child,” he said. “I told her to call 911. I just grabbed my keys and went after him.”

Jones said Sunday that he didn’t think twice before jumping into his car after the pickup fled.

“I have small children myself, and I wouldn’t want anybody to get away after something like that,” said Jones, whose 7-year-old son was a frequent playmate of the Hastings child, who lived three doors away.

Jones caught up with the driver on the other side of the park, where the teen-ager had pulled up near a mobile home and jumped out. “I saw the blood on the back of the truck, so I knew that was the truck that hit the boy,” Jones said. “I grabbed him and pulled him out of the yard by his shirt and put him up against the side of my car and restrained him.”

Jones said he recognized the driver as a youth who often visited friends at the mobile-home park. “This particular teen-ager I had warned a couple of times about speeding,” he said.

Jones said the park’s posted speed limit is 15 m.p.h.

Jones said the teen-ager was upset. “He asked me what happened. I told him what he did.”

Another neighbor helped Jones hold the youth until deputies arrived. The teen-ager, whose name was withheld because of his age, remained in custody Sunday until criminal charges could be determined, Giddings said.

Jones said the accident has left him worried about his own children’s safety. “Their bikes are grounded,” he said.