Parents of Dead Boy, Police Seek Help in Finding Hit-Run Driver

The parents of a 7-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver joined with police Thursday in calling for the public’s help in finding the man who killed their son.

Oscar Torres Jr. was struck in the 14700 block of Delano Street about 8:45 p.m. Sunday as he stood over his bicycle waiting for a car to pass by, Los Angeles Police Detective Maureen Correa said.

“He wasn’t in the path of traffic,” Correa said.

Witnesses told police that the car swerved to the right and hit the boy while the driver was distracted. Torres was hit and dragged several feet before the driver swerved again and crashed into a parked car, witnesses said.

Torres was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, Correa said.

The car, described as an early 1980s white or off-white Buick Regal with a black vinyl top on half of the roof, backed up and drove off after the accident.

Detective Jim Mann, Correa’s partner, said police asked for the public’s help in solving the case because they do not have a license plate number or a good description of the driver, a Hispanic male whose age is estimated between 18 and 21.

“Every now and then, we get a phone call and we follow that, but there is someone out there who saw or knows something about this accident or the driver,” he said.

The boy’s parents, Oscar Torres, 28, and Maria Aguilar-Torres, 24, spoke at a news conference in front of the Van Nuys police station, where they appealed to the public and the driver of the vehicle.

Oscar Torres remembered his son, who will be buried today in a San Fernando cemetery, as a fun-loving boy who wanted to play soccer and grow up to become a police officer.

“If he has a conscience and is a Christian, I’m asking him to turn himself in,” Torres said of the driver.

Police are posting flyers in the neighborhood where the accident took place and ask anyone with information about the accident to contact Mann or Correa at (818) 989-8391, or (818) 989-8381 after 5 p.m.