Boy, 6, Fatally Injured by Hit-Run Van Driver
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A 6-year-old boy walking home from school with several friends near downtown Los Angeles was struck and killed Monday by a van that failed to stop, police said.
Jorge Villeda was crossing Court Street at Toluca Street when a van traveling west on Court passed a stopped school bus and struck him, Detective Richard Litsinger said.
The driver immediately turned south on Toluca and fled.
Jorge, who died at Childrens Hospital, had been walking home from Betty Plasencia Elementary School with friends, Litsinger said. No other children were hurt.
An investigation revealed that the van may have been parked at the school before the accident, and the driver may have just picked up another student, the detective said. Witnesses described the van as a 1976 to 1980 model, red or brown, possibly with stripes along the side and white spoke rims.
Witnesses gave police a partial license plate number, 1Y218, with the last two numbers missing.
Police requested that anyone with information on the accident telephone the Central Traffic Division at 485-3111.
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