Woman dies weeks after being struck in Little Village hit-and-run; family wants justice
Tapia #Tapia
CHICAGO (CBS) — A Little Village neighborhood mother of five and community volunteer died weeks after she was the victim of a hit-and-run accident.
CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar spoke Friday with family members who are calling for justice in the case.
The hit-and-run happened back on Sunday, Nov. 20. The victim, Juana Tapia Lopez, was picking up one of her daughters from work when a car hit her and just kept going.
“My mom was little, but mighty,” said Lopez’s daughter, Monse Soto.
The driver did not stop after hitting Lopez at 26th Street and Drake Avenue around 8:20 p.m. that Sunday before Thanksgiving.
“How could you take another person,” Soto said. “My mom was a human, and for the person that did it to just leave her there like she was nothing?”
Lopez – a mom to five children – died Thursday from her injuries.
“It doesn’t feel real. My mom was very loud and very talkative – and seeing her in the hospital so quiet, so still, was very scary,” Soto said, “and then seeing her pass away yesterday – it just didn’t feel like it was my mom in that bed.”
Lopez, 56, volunteered with the Little Village Community Council. Baltazar Enriquez, president of the council, said this hit-and-run was personal for him.
“Very personal,” Enriquez said. “We’re going to fight for one of our members.”
Initially, detectives released a surveillance picture of the pickup that they believed hit Lopez. But family says they have since been told a different vehicle is wanted in the case.
Chicago Police confirmed with CBS Chicago that indeed they are not looking for the pickup truck anymore.
“At first, they had shown this picture of a burgundy pickup truck with dents in it and tinted windows – and they ended up saying that it wasn’t that car,” Soto said.
“They told them a narrative; a story – and now they’re changing their story,” added Enriquez, “so definitely there’s some discrepancies here.”
AS Soto approaches her first Christmas without her mom, she now has just one wish.
“For them to turn themselves in; for them to know that they ruined my family,” she said. “My mom was the rock in our family. She was the glue.”
Police say this is still an open investigation, and nobody is in custody.