MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The Miami-Dade Police Department held a news conference Thursday morning with the family of a man who was killed earlier last week in a hit-and-run crash in northwest Miami-Dade.
“We’re asking you Miami, as an entire community that my brother was part of, please, please help us find this person,” the victim’s brother, Alexander Lopez, said. “Come forward. Any information that you have to share, please share it because I can’t rest until we do.”
Christopher Lopez, 23, was killed the morning of April 19 in the crash at the intersection of Northwest 119th Street and 22nd Avenue.
According to Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, who is also a spokesman for the police department, a Toyota Sienna that was occupied with seven people was heading east on Northwest 119th Street, crossing the intersection, when it was rear-ended at a high rate of speed by a red Dodge Charger.
Lopez was inside of the Sienna. Six other men, who are also in their early 20s, and who were inside the minivan, were taken to local hospitals in stable condition.
Police said the group of friends were returning home from a road trip to Sarasota.
Lopez was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he died.
Zabaleta said the driver of the Charger abandoned the vehicle at the scene and fled the area.
“We believe that the driver was picked up by another vehicle and somebody else assisted the driver in fleeing the scene,” Detective Eduardo Diaz said.
The victim’s family and friends are pleading for justice.
“You may have taken, whoever has killed my brother, you may have taken his life, but I will spend the rest of my life looking for you,” Lopez’s brother said.
“Nobody knows a pain as great as a mother who loses her child like this,” their mother told reporters.
Lopez was studying at a college in Gainesville and dreamed of being a doctor. A GoFundMe page has been created to help his family pay for funeral expenses.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.