A Christmas Tragedy Claims Teenager

Even though Friday was the last day of school before Christmas and his school was a 35-mile bus ride from his home in Watts, Bobby Hobdy still wanted to go Friday--despite the flu bug he was still trying to shake.

He was a joy to be around, his teachers and classmates said. “He would make you happy with a grin,” said fellow student Mary Meyer, 15, who met him earlier in the semester. “You could get attached to him really easily.”

His stepfather had just dropped off the 16-year-old at a bus stop in Watts for the ride to Taft High School in Woodland Hills when the boy was struck by a minivan and knocked 30 feet into oncoming traffic on Century Boulevard.

But that was not the end of the agonizing incident, which occurred at 6:20 a.m. A second vehicle ran over him.

As horrified students waiting for the bus and others watched, neither driver stopped to help the teenager, who died at the scene.

They just sped away.

“This was a tragedy,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Bill Whittaker. “There was no compassion. There was no responsibility.”

The teenager’s grandfather, Robert Goza, added, “I couldn’t live with myself if I did that and drove off.”

A particularly painful aspect of the incident, Whittaker said, was that Hobdy’s stepfather had just dropped off the boy at the bus stop and watched him start to cross Century, in the crosswalk at Wadsworth Avenue.

The stepfather heard the ambulance sirens because the family lives close by and came back, the detective said. There, the family discovered that the boy was dead.

Hobdy, who last year attended nearby Jordan High School as a ninth-grader, was a special education student who had a permit to attend Taft. A special education counselor at Taft said he had slight learning difficulties, but had above-average intelligence.

Family members described the boy, whom they called B.J., as a special young man who cut lawns, washed cars and did other small tasks to earn money to help out his family.

“He could take care of himself,” said cousin Chesny Terry of Hawthorne.

The teenager’s mother, Tracy Daniels, would not talk to a reporter when approached at the family home Friday afternoon.

Shortly thereafter, the grieving mother left home to deliver Christmas gifts to special education students at a nearby school.

“Regardless of the accident, she took the gifts to the kids,” a friend, Cynthia Cohen, later told a reporter. “I tried talking her out of it.”

Daniels is a special education teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Cohen said.

The news of the accident shocked students, teachers and administrators at Taft High School at the start of the school day.

“When I found out . . . I started to cry,” said instructor Ali Kobaissi, who taught biology to Hobdy during fourth period. “I lost one of my kids. It was like one of my kids.”

Hobdy was not an A student, but constantly tried to improve his grades, according to teachers.

“He had to try harder than everybody else and he sure did,” said teacher Linda Tamschen, who taught him art. “In other classes, he could not be the best . . . but in [art class] other students saw him as the best artist.”

Hobdy would often inquire about the status of his biology grade, Kobaissi said.

Recently, Hobdy approached Kobaissi.

“His face lit up,” Kobaissi remembered. “He said, ‘For the first time in my life, all my grades are C and above.’ ”

“He’s one of those kids we wish we could have 40 of in our class,” Kobaissi said.

L.A. Unified officials said a number of special education students in South Los Angeles have permits to attend classes in the San Fernando Valley. The bus that Hobdy was supposed to take makes 10 stops in the Watts area before making the hour drive to the Valley.

Police detectives were asking for the public’s help in finding the drivers of the cars involved. “It’s a solvable case, but we need help,” Whittaker said.

The first vehicle to hit Hobdy was described by police as a sky blue Plymouth minivan, possibly a 1987 to 1989 model, with extensive damage to the front grille as a result of the accident.

At least one headlight was also damaged.

Whittaker said the driver of the minivan was described as a black man 28 to 30 years old.

Detectives said there was no information about the second auto or its driver.

Anyone with information regarding Friday’s accident can call police detectives at (213) 485-2088 or (213) 485-7336.

Times staff writer George Ramos contributed to this story.