Family Mourns Loss Of Three Generations Due To DUI Hit-And-Run Crash
TURLOCK (CBS13) – It was an incredibly heartbreaking day for a Turlock neighborhood as community learned about the death of a boy, his mother and grandmother.
Dozens of people gathered at a makeshift memorial; they prayed in Spanish for little 4-year-old Brian Flores and his family.
Brian, his sister Emily, their mother Julia and grandmother Maria Elena were walking around the neighborhood Saturday night – a walk neighbors say the family often took.
"We have a rabbit in our front yard, the little boy would walk by the fence and try to kick the fence to scare the rabbit," said neighbor Blanca Navarro.
But no one in this quiet Turlock neighborhood expected what would happen next: A car speeding down the street veered into the sidewalk and slammed into the family. Navarro heard a crash and started running toward the scene.
"I felt like my legs couldn't run fast enough to get here," Navarro said.
She tried to save Brian's life.
"When I see the little boy there, it just broke my heart, so I [tried] to find a pulse for him," Navarro said.
Rescue crews couldn't save him, either. He later died at the hospital, while his mom and grandmother died at the scene. The sole survivor is 2-year-old Emily, who clung to her grandfather as we spoke to him.
A relative translated to us that he was at work when the accident happened.
"They're not here, so he started looking for them," Deisy Trevizo said.
And that took him to the scene where he saw his granddaughter Emily – and learned the rest of his family hadn't survived.
"When she saw him, she [ran] to him because she doesn't know anybody else," Trevizo said.
Neighbors said that lot of people speed through the area. They hope the loss of these three lives will bring some awareness to the problem.
Turlock Police have not released the names of the suspects.
