BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Florida Highway Patrol says they have a possible lead on the suspect involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash that occurred early Wednesday morning on Florida’s Turnpike in Broward County.
The crash left a 6-year-old boy dead. His 37-year-old mother who was driving a black 2015 Volkswagen Passat and a man who was in the front passenger seat were injured in the crash.
Nakisha Louis-Jeune, the aunt of the 6-year-old boy, told Local 10 News that her nephew Azire “had an opportunity to have his first day of school, and his first day of school would be his last day of school.”
According to FHP, the driver of the Mercedes that hit the other car is a Black man between the age of 20 to 25, who is about 5 feet, 5 inches tall.
Witnesses say the hit-and-run suspect was “carrying a baby who was in the backseat of the car.”
The crash was reported just before 12:30 a.m. Wednesday in the northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike, about 350 feet north of Griffin Road.
According to authorities, the Passat was stopped on the inside travel lane after their car broke down.
Troopers said a blue 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLE was heading north on the Turnpike, approaching the Griffin Road overpass and rear-ended the Passat which had no lights on at the time of collision.
Troopers said the impact caused the Passat to spin clockwise across the center and outside travel lanes, strike a guardrail and come to a final rest on the outside shoulder, facing a southwesterly direction.
The Mercedes came to a stop facing a northerly direction, straddling the inside shoulder and inside lane, authorities said.
The owner of the Mercedes is cooperating with the officials and was not the driver at the time of the incident, authorities confirmed on Thursday.
According to Louis-Jeune, “Azire was full of life. You would think he was an individual who was already on this earth before.”
The woman and man who were injured in the crash were taken by Davie Fire Rescue to Broward Health Medical Center, but were later released.
Louis-Jeune has a message for the driver: “It could have been an accident; just stay. Why would you leave? But, of course, they left, because what they did was wrong.”
Anyone with further information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.