WIXOM, Mich. – A 14-year-old boy was killed Monday when a minivan struck him while he was riding his bicycle in Wixom.
Police are searching for the driver who struck the boy on Potter Road just east of Wixom Road before ditching the minivan miles away.
Investigators are processing the minivan involved in the hit-and-run crash. They said the man behind the wheel left the minivan in Commerce Township and fled.
Officials said the boy was riding his bicycle down Potter Road between Black Locus Drive and Flamingo Street when the minivan ran him over and took off.
"It's horrible," neighbor Mike Henry said. "That's all I can say is 'horrible.'"
Many neighbors rushed to the boy's side, but his injuries were too severe. Emergency crews tried to save him, but he died at a hospital.
"They transported him to an area hospital," Wixom Director of Public Safety Ron Moore said. "Unfortunately, the boy died as a result of his injuries."
As the boy's bicycle sat on the side of the road, all neighbors could think about was the man who left the child to die.
"Come on," Henry said. "You don't run away from something like that. Come man up."
Instead, police said the man drove with a broken windshield and front-end damage to a mobile home park nearly 2 miles away. He parked and abandoned the minivan.
"I do have a message for the driver," Moore said. "Turn yourself in."
Residents in the neighborhood looked on with disbelief as investigators tried to determine if the driver ever slowed down.
"I was in the backyard," Henry said. "I didn't hear any brakes, no squealing of tires. The witnesses told the officer when he arrived on scene that he was going fast."
The deadly hit-and-run touched Moore, who had just given a warning to students at two graduations earlier in the day.
"My parting remarks to the boys and girls were, 'Have a great summer, a safe summer, and if you're out riding your bikes, please be careful. Wear your helmets,'" Moore said. "So to have this happen just hours after, it just tears me up."