Hit-and-Run Victim, 8, Was Finding New Hope

The Fourth of July trip to his grandparents’ home in Santa Ana was an unusually happy one for 8-year-old Felipe Ortiz.

Things hadn’t gone so well for him recently. His mother had moved out, leaving Felipe, his younger brother and his father together in their Riverside home, and he had flunked a grade in school.

But this trip brought him together with about 50 relatives, one of them Maricela Lopez, who had been trying to step in as a surrogate mother. He called her throughout the day to find out when she would arrive.

She smothered him with kisses when she saw him Tuesday.

He was also looking forward to Wednesday, his first day of second grade, giving him a fresh start. “He was so happy,” Lopez said.

At 9:30 p.m., as neighbors filled the residential street to light fireworks, an old, white Mazda MPV with black trim drove down the 2000 block of West Washington Avenue, traveling only about 25 mph, and struck Felipe. The car dragged him 60 feet and kept going.

Felipe was one of two boys killed that night while playing with fireworks in the streets of Southern California.

“I don’t think [Felipe] saw the car, and I don’t think the driver ever saw the boy before the accident,” said Jose Mendez, a witness. “There was so much fireworks and smoke.”

Family members cried, “Felipito!” into the smoke as they raced to him.

Others chased the car, but it sped away. Police haven’t found it. If the driver, who witnesses said was a man, had stopped, he wouldn’t have faced charges as long as police determined that he had the right of way. Instead, he could face charges of involuntary manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Lorenzo Carrillo.

“We’re all searching for the driver,” Carrillo said. “This is one of those that tests everybody’s emotions.”

Police were also investigating a similar accident that occurred 10 minutes later in Athens, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, near Inglewood. The driver stopped after he fatally struck 12-year-old Lewis Fountain, who was shooting off fireworks on 88th Street, near Vermont Avenue.

Felix Madu Uwandi, 56, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and vehicular homicide.

Uwandi was driving 45 mph through the residential neighborhood, California Highway Patrol Officer Arlen Estrem said.

After he was hit, Lewis rolled onto the hood of the Honda Accord. He fell to the ground when Uwandi hit the brakes, and the car ran over him, according to Estrem.

Like the Santa Ana case, witnesses said the car never slowed before it struck the boy.

If Felipe felt anything before he died, it might have been Lopez’s hand in his as she dropped to the pavement beside him. She called his name from time to time, asking him not to leave her.

By the time the paramedics arrived, he was dead. They took him away slowly. No sirens or lights. There was no need to rush.

His relatives prayed for him inside Lopez’s nearby house until 6 a.m.

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Times staff writer Ashley Surdin contributed to this report.