A Chicago mother is pleading for a hit-and-run driver to surrender after her son was left in the street following a collision in the South Austin neighborhood.
“I just want you to step up, just come to me,” said Laticia Walker. “Give me closure, give me peace that you’re human, and this situation wasn’t intentional.”
Walker told NBC 5 her son, Lamarke Smith is now fighting for his life in a coma on life support at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
“I’m just asking God to just please spare my son’s life,” she said.
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Her son, a father of three, was struck by a car while riding his motor scooter last Friday night. Walker said he had just left her place and was heading to a friend’s party.
“He said mom, I’ll be back in a few hours and the next call I got at 10:30 was my son was in the ambulance fighting for his life,” she recounted.
Chicago police said the 34-year-old was turning left onto Madison Street from Mason Avenue when he was rear ended. The driver of a vehicle, possibly a white Kia, didn't stop and kept going. The impact threw Smith into the air. Witnesses rushed over to try and help him.
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“He has six skull fractures, two brain bleeds, his third rib cage down is broken with bleeding,” she said. “Two hairline fractures as well as two sinus fractures.”
Walker describes her son as a social butterfly, life of the party and a great father who would do anything for his children.
“They just keep asking for him to wake up,” she said. “I don’t know what to tell them as a grandmother-- how to tell them that I’m just praying that he will wake up.”
Walker is hoping her son will pull through and the driver will do the right thing.
“We’re just on begging knees,” she said. “Just turn yourself in just think if this was your child—turn yourself in.”
Family and friends will hold a prayer vigil for Smith Friday night at 6 p.m. at Adams Boulevard and Menard Avenue near Columbus Park. They plan to head over to the scene of the crash to pass out flyers to drum up new leads in the case.
If you have any information about the driver or the vehicle involved, you’re asked to call the Chicago Police Department Major Accident Investigation Unit at 312-745-4521.
