Hit-Run Taxi Kills Man in Wheelchair

Los Angeles police were searching Friday for the driver of a taxicab that struck and killed a 34-year-old man in a wheelchair.

Jose Laboy, on his way home from classes at Santa Monica College, was hit about 8:45 p.m. Thursday while crossing Adams Boulevard at Palm Grove Avenue, police said.

Witnesses told police that the driver of the taxi, described as a green and white car, possibly a mid-’90s Ford Crown Victoria, fled the scene after striking Laboy.

The victim’s niece, Lisa Rivera, said she heard the wail of the ambulance siren a block from her Jefferson Park home, but that she didn’t think about it again until she drove out onto Adams Boulevard.

There she saw her uncle’s white wheelchair lying mangled in the street.

“The way it happened, it was like he was going full force,” Rivera, 21, said of the driver. “To hit a man in a wheelchair? It was like he didn’t have a heart.”

Laboy was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

At the accident site Friday, relatives set up a makeshift memorial with candles, flowers and black balloons. A picture of Laboy, round-faced and smiling, was also on display.

Around the corner at the Laboy family home, friends and relatives gathered to remember him.

Rivera, speaking for the family because Laboy’s mother and sister were too distraught, said Laboy’s life had been filled with struggle. When he was 17, he was shot in the spine and paralyzed during a drive-by shooting, Rivera said.

“He threw himself on top of somebody else and took a bullet,” she said.

Laboy, who had dropped out of school, always pushed his nieces and nephews to better themselves, Rivera said. He was taking classes at Santa Monica College to earn his general equivalency diploma, she said.

“He’d say, ‘Don’t be like me, stay in school,’ ” over and over again, Rivera said. “He was such a caring person. Even in his situation he looked after everyone else.”

Los Angeles police appealed to the public for help in identifying the driver of the taxi. Anyone with information is asked to call (323) 299-6063.

“All we want now is for the person who did it to come forward,” Rivera said. “I’m not going to stand here and say I want him to get life [in prison] or something like that because really, nothing is going to bring back my uncle.”