Teen fatally struck by car in Pasadena

PASADENA

Pasadena police say they've received a number of tips, though so far none of those potential leads has resulted in an arrest -- at least not yet. Plans are being made now to bury Lopez in Mexico.

Just days before Christmas, Alma Hernandez clutched the coat she was planning to put under the tree for her younger sister.

"I bought her present Saturday," Hernandez said. "She's not gonna get it. It's not gonna be Christmas. It's not the same anymore."

Lopez was struck and killed while crossing Pasadena Boulevard Monday night near Burke. She was not in a crosswalk. Police say eyewitnesses told them the driver stopped, looked out the window and then sped off.

"I can't believe somebody could have the heart to do that, just look and see somebody just laying there and not get off and try to help her and see if she's OK," Hernandez said.

Hernandez says her sister had been at a friend's home that she was supposed to call her mother to pick her up. Her mother became concerned when Lopez didn't and when she failed to answer her phone. Police used that same phone to figure out who Lopez was after she was struck, calling the last number dialed -- her mother.

The greatest gift now that Hernandez says she could get this Christmas would be someone turning in the person responsible for her sister's death.

"It could be anybody's daughter, anybody's little siste. Just come out and say something," Hernandez said. "We want to know what happened. We want to know why."

Lopez was a seventh-grader at Park View Intermediate School in Pasadena ISD.

Police describe the driver only as a man in his 30s or 40s. The car is said to be a silver or gray four-door sedan with heavy damage to the front and right side.

Smythe Elementary is close to where the hit-and-run happened, so Lopez's family is hoping the campus' surveillance cameras might have recorded an image of the person responsible.

Anyone with information about this accident is asked to call the Pasadena Police Department at 713-477-1221 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.