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Mom Of Hit-And-Run Victim Has Message For Driver: 'Face Your Responsibility'

BOYLE HEIGHTS (CBSLA.com) — The mother of a woman critically injured in a hit-and-run crash at an East LA bus stop is asking the driver to turn himself in.

Police have identified the suspect as Pedro Velasquez of Cudahy. The crash occurred about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.

Witnesses said the driver fled the scene after the crash, which also pinned a 55-year-old man under the suspect's Yukon.

KCAL9's Suraya Fadel spoke to Mercedes Gonzales about her daughter's ordeal.

"She cannot talk to me," said Gonzales about her daughter, 31-year-old Sarah Lopez. (The woman's boyfriend also said Sarah is pregnant.)

Lopez was walking with her boyfriend when the Yukon went onto the sidewalk at Atlantic and Whittier boulevards. The SUV sent the woman airborne. She suffered major head trauma when she landed.

Gonzales said she has been by her daughter's bedside almost 24-7.

"I am letting her know I am there," Gonzales said. "She can't talk to me, she can't see me. I tell her I love her very much."

It is difficult for Gonzales to see her daughter so helpless.

"When I go up there to see her, it hurts me so much," she said.

The victim's mother still has trouble wrapping her head around someone injuring her daughter and running away. "I have to shake my head," she says. "How could he do this?"

Lopez has already had one major surgery on her head.

Her mother had one message for Velasquez, the alleged driver.

"Turn yourself in. Face your responsibility," she said.

Officials tell Fadel they are narrowing the search for Velasquez.

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