Insets: Roger Sandoval Farias (KABC/YouTube/GoFundMe). Background: The scene of the crash in Playa Del Rey, Calif., that claimed the life of 1-year-old Roger Sandoval Farias (KABC/YouTube).
A California mother and father clutched their dying 1-year-old son in their arms — pulling his teddy bear onesie off to try to save his life — after a hit-and-run driver plowed into their car as they were heading home from a family beach day, cops say.
“He”s still warm, he’s still warm,” said Nicole Farias, mother of victim Roger Sandoval Farias, while holding her “baby” boy after the early Sunday morning crash in Playa Del Rey, according to witnesses who spoke to local NBC affiliate KNBC.
“(She) ran over and was holding the child,” recounted Cory Cooper, who was one of several people who tried to help. “We held the baby and we tried to give the baby CPR for as long as we could, as best as we could, until the ambulance got there.”
Farias told KNBC, “When I took out the clothes on the baby, I felt him warm, but his feet and his hands were cold already.” She said Roger was “barely 1” and hadn’t even started walking yet.
“I shouldn’t be burying my son,” Farias said. “I wanted to see him walk, you know?”
A press release posted online by the Los Angeles Police Department says the driver who hit the family’s car, who has not been publicly named yet, was behind the wheel of a white Jeep Cherokee traveling southbound on Vista Del Mar Avenue when the vehicle crossed over into oncoming traffic on the northbound lane and crashed into a blue BMW carrying Roger and his family.
The boy’s uncle, Oswaldo Sandoval Amaya, 25, died at the scene. Roger was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Two others who were in the car with them were hospitalized.
“The driver of the white Jeep Cherokee abandoned the vehicle at the scene and fled the location on foot without stopping to identify themselves or render aid as required by law,” the LAPD release alleges.
Roger’s father, Oscar Sandoval, spoke to local ABC affiliate KABC on Monday while holding his son’s teddy bear onesie and described having to pull it off Roger while trying to save the child’s life on the side of the road. He said it was his brother who also died and that the family was heading home after enjoying a day at the beach.
“I see my brother, his face, his chest… God, it’s hard,” Sandoval said.
“I don’t wish this to nobody,” Farias told KNBC.
Police say they will be releasing more information on the suspect in the coming days as their investigation continues.
