HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A family is desperately asking for help in finding the driver who struck their loved one this week in Hallandale Beach.
The hit-and-run was reported Tuesday in the 100 block of Northwest Sixth Avenue.
Police are expected to release surveillance video Friday in the hopes that someone will recognize the car and come forward with information about the driver.
Police identified the victim as Claytron Peterson.
They said he was walking along Northwest Sixth Avenue in Hallandale Beach when he was hit by a car. The driver never stopped.
"I was was watching TV and I heard some noise, so we came out and didn't see anything, but he was on the other side already. It was like a crash -- a car hitting another car," Lisette Marellin, who heard the crash, said.
The car is described as a Nissan Murano with passenger-side damage and it is missing a bumper cover.
Peterson works at the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
His co-workers and friends held a fundraising lunch Friday across the street from the police station to help raise money for his family.
Loved ones described Peterson as a caring young man who grew up in the city and volunteered his time with the police athletic league.
"Claytron grew up in the parks. He was a kid in our program and then when he got old enough he volunteered and he became an employee about four years ago, so he runs our library at Foster Park," Parks and Recreation Director Cathie Schanz said. "And he is everyone's little brother. He has never met a person he doesn't like, and he is just the nicest guy."
Peterson is in critical condition at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.
Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.