AVENTURA, Fla. – Police are searching for the driver of a car that struck a jogger Sunday night in a hit-and-run crash in northeast Miami-Dade County.
John Desormot, a 28-year-old Army reservist, said he was training for an upcoming physical training test outside his apartment complex along San Simeon Way when he was struck.
Desormot was seriously hurt and underwent surgery Tuesday at Aventura Hospital.
"I saw a car speeding through and then I tried to move out the way," Desormot said before the operation. "I mean, he tried to stop at the last minute, like the very last minute."
Desormot said the driver did not stop to help and fled the scene.
"The fact that that person hit me and left me there, it's kind of, I mean, there's no words for it," Desormot said.
A passing good Samaritan came to Desormot's aid and called his mother, who ran to the scene.
"He was trying to reach to me and I said, 'Don't move. You have to stay. Don't move at all. You're OK. Just stay with me. Don't leave me. Stay with me,'" Cassandra Oscar said.
Oscar had a message for the hit-and-run driver.
"It's OK to make a mistake, but to leave a human being, another human being, for dead, it's not OK," Oscar said.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.