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Family, police encourage hit-and-run driver to surrender

Posted at 4:58 PM, May 17, 2022
and last updated 2022-05-17 18:14:59-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The Detroit Police Department and the family of a woman killed in a hit-and-run crash are asking for help with finding the driver responsible.

The crash happened late Monday afternoon near Livernois and Vernor Highway on the city's Southwest side.

Family identifies the victim as 32-year-old Iris Liciaga and started a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.

“She was just standing on the sidewalk waiting for her turn to cross the street," her niece Milka Ghamloush told 7 Action News.

Surveillance footage from a business caught the moment the pickup truck left the roadway, hit Liciago and kept going.

Police said the vehicle is a red Ford F-150 pickup truck with the FX package. They’re working to find out the plate number.

Ghamloush said Liciaga was walking to work to pick up an extra shift at Harms Elementary School where she's a custodian.

“Everything that was going through her mind was just her kids," she said. "It’s just two kids that lost their mother. She was their world."

Investigators say they’re confident they’ll find the person behind the wheel who hit Liciaga, but they want that individual to go ahead and do the right thing.

“We ask that the driver of that vehicle if you turn yourself in you can tell your side of the story, maybe it was an accident, maybe it couldn’t be avoided. We’re not making judgments right now. We just want to get to the bottom of it and find justice for this family,” Detroit Police Department Cmdr. John Serda said.

Ghamloush said, "Well, my message to the driver is to please turn yourself in because the reality of the situation is it’s going to be a lot worse if you run away. It’s just going to be a lot worse. It would help us a lot if we could see maybe that you feel sorry for what you did because we’re in pain."

If you have information, police ask that you call the homicide unit 313-596-2260. They’re asking the driver to turn themselves in at any precinct.