Family, friends ask public for leads in teen's hit-and-run death

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Kirby Tillis and her friends Dustin and Rachel are making sure everyone who drives by a stretch of road on FM 2920 thinks about their friend who was hit and killed on the roadway.

Steven 'Ethan' Jones, 19, died Nov. 13 when he was walking along the road and was hit and killed, Harris County deputies said.

Whoever hit Ethan, possibly driving a Cadillac Escalade, didn't stop to help, investigators say.

Dustin Smith, a family friend, says he believes Ethan was walking to a friend's house at the time.

"Steve, his father, is one of my best friends, so they've eaten with us many times, and he's played with my kids, Ethan has, they're a good family," Smith said. "They've gone through some hard times over the years. He's a single dad trying to raise two kids, so that made it difficult, but all in all, he was on the right track."

Crimestoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 to anyone with information that leads to an arrest of the driver who hit Ethan.

His close friends are depending on it.

"This wasn't some unloved person. This is someone who was loved and cared for."

"The person who did this disgusts me," said Darian Hammond, Ethan's girlfriend. "They didn't stop. They didn't render aid. Even if he were to die right then and there, they still could have called, they could have stopped and checked to see if he was breathing but they didn't."