Hit-and-run victim's kin plead for driver's surrender
The grieving family of a Dorchester mother of 11 who died after being struck by a car while shopping for Thanksgiving dinner made an emotional appeal yesterday for the hit-and-run driver to surrender.
Meanwhile, police urged windshield repair and auto body shops to be on the lookout for a Volvo sedan with front-end damage.
Linda Cruz, 57, was struck by a car at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday while crossing the street at the corner of Warren Avenue and Dartmouth Street in Boston's South End. She died Thanksgiving Day at Massachusetts General Hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
"Her children are so devastated," said Veta Sealey, Cruz's sister. "They are just in shock. Their father is deceased, and now they have lost their mother."
The family can't understand why the driver stopped briefly to check on Cruz as she lay injured in the street, then sped away, said Sealey. She pleaded for the driver's surrender, saying, "It would make a big difference if they came forward."
Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said yesterday that police have not identified the driver who hit Cruz. They asked that auto body shops and windshield replacement companies alert them if anyone seeks repairs for "inexplicable windshield or front-end damage" to a Volvo sedan.
Cruz, who was one of 13 children, grew up in Roxbury, graduated from Jeremiah E. Burke High School, and raised four girls and seven boys of her own, now ages 16 to 37, according to her mother, Lueveta Sealey of Roxbury. Cruz was a widow, and while some of her children were scattered around the country, three still resided with her on Norwell Street, Lueveta Sealey said.
"She was a wonderful daughter, a very giving person who made friends so easily," said Sealey, adding that her daughter loved to cook, clean, and take care of her family.
And, Sealey said, her daughter loved to do all of the cooking for the holidays.
"Those were the good old days, being happy, sitting around the table," said Lueveta Sealey, noting that her daughter was planning to entertain about 30 to 40 relatives and friends at her apartment on Thanksgiving and was out shopping for groceries when she was struck by the car.
Police said witnesses described the driver as a black man who was bald and wearing a long black overcoat.
The car was described as a late model dark blue or black Volvo sedan.
Cruz's children and family rushed to her bedside, according to her mother and sister. Cruz was pronounced dead at 3:51 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, said Suzanne Kim, an MGH spokeswoman.
"It's a very, very difficult and sad situation," said Lueveta Sealey, who along with other family members assembled a makeshift memorial, with a photograph of her daughter, at the intersection where she was fatally injured.
