Ice-Cream Vendor Sought in Hit-Run Death

The suspected hit-and-run driver who killed an 11-month-old boy probably fled out of fear, and now faces felony charges even though investigators believe the accident wasn’t his fault, authorities said last week.

The driver was identified as Tomas Aguilar Vargas, 24, a resident of the La Puente-El Monte area.

A felony warrant for his arrest will be sought, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department traffic investigator Don Blades said Thursday, the same day funeral services were held for Michael Serrato in Park Lawn Memorial Park in the City of Commerce.

Michael, called “Angel” by his family, was killed at 1:10 p.m. Dec. 15 when he was struck by an ice-cream van traveling slowly in front of his house in the 14000 block of Beckner Street in La Puente.

Three of the infant’s older brothers and sisters left the house to buy ice cream from the vendor, but they did not notice that Michael had followed them, Blades said. The child wandered in front of the van’s front wheel that was farthest from the curb, Blades said, and was run over as Vargas drove the vehicle slowly forward.

Andrea Cortez, 39, Angel’s mother, who has six other children under the age of 19, said she has not returned to her home since because she cannot bear to see the accident site.

“From the age of eight months, he (Angel) was walking and saying ‘Mama,’ ” Cortez recalled. “He was a very happy child.”

Cortez said her 11-year-old daughter, Rosemary Hernandez, now cannot eat or sleep because of her brother’s death. Another child, 7-year-old Jessica Hernandez, at first refused to accept that her brother was dead and insisted he would return from the hospital soon, alive and well, the mother said.

Gifts of food and money have been given to the family from SAVE, Special Assistance to Victims in Emergency, a nonprofit victims’ assistance organization in the district attorney’s office, said Norma Valenzuela, a SAVE employee in the City of Industry sheriff’s station.

The family may also qualify for state aid to pay for the funeral, Valenzuela said.

Nevertheless, Angel’s death has cast a pall over Christmas, Cortez said.

Vargas had been working only a few months as an independent, unlicensed ice-cream vendor-- lacking even a California driver’s license--when the accident happened, Blades said.

A native Guatemalan from the Pueblo of San Martin, Vargas was living with relatives in the San Gabriel Valley. But he probably has now fled back to his homeland, the investigator said.

If caught and convicted of felony hit-and-run, Vargas could face a maximum of four years in jail, Blades said. But if he had stayed at the accident site, he likely would not be in trouble, he said.

“This accident was not, in fact, his fault; it would have been very difficult for him to see the child,” Blades said. “It’s speculation, but I believe, because he was unlicensed and uninsured, he panicked at seeing the child in the road and decided to get out of town.”

On Thursday, sheriff’s deputies displayed the ice-cream van at the Industry station.

A red van with a white dome top and the words family wagon painted on the rear doors, it was found abandoned in El Monte at a storage yard where many ice-cream vendors park their vehicles, Blades said.