Authorities Have Lead in Hit-and-Run Death of Boy, 6, in Crosswalk

The hit-and-run driver who killed a 6-year-old La Puente boy last week may be a neighborhood woman whose children attend the school on the street where the boy was struck, authorities suspect.

Witnesses told the Sheriff’s Department that a white, mid-1970s station wagon driven by a woman struck Matthew Reyes as he walked his bike in a crosswalk in front of Sierra Vista Junior High School on April 22.

A similar vehicle had been seen dropping off and picking up children at the school before the accident, but has not been spotted since, deputies said.

In hope of prodding the driver to come forward, detectives and Matthew’s family have spent the past several days handing out hundreds of flyers with the boy’s picture.

“We have no other leads,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Don Blades, whose department has stopped more than a dozen vehicles fitting the description--without luck. “If no one comes forward, this case will go unsolved.”

Matthew, a first-grader who stood 3 feet, 11 inches and weighed 49 pounds, was killed a block from his home while riding his bike just the way his mother had told him: Never in the street, always on the sidewalk and crossing only after looking both ways.

“He did everything he was supposed to do,” said Marion Reyes, a trust officer at a Los Angeles bank. “He was our perfect child.”