Family of Freddy Perez, killed in Mission Hills hit-and-run, seeks justice as driver remains at large
$50,000 reward offered for info leading to arrest of hit-and-run driver
A grieving family is asking for your help. They want to find the driver who left a young man to die on a city street. His family tells us this young man was just about to make a major life decision. FOX 11's Gigi Graciette is live from Mission Hills with the story of a proposal that never was.
MISSION HILLS, Calif. - His name was Freddy Perez.
By all accounts, he was the nicest guy you could meet.
"He was selfless. He was full of life," said his older sister Lizzette Perez. "His smile filled up every single room."
The 30-year-old, she said, had everything going for him - a tight-knit loving family, a great job in accounting, and a plan.
"He had plans to propose to his girlfriend who lives in Mexico," she said.
Freddy was ready to settle down, having finally found the love of his life, Andrea.
He was going to ask her to marry him. The whole family was preparing to celebrate what was going to be Freddy’s big day.
Freddy Perez / Family photo
"He asked my mom for her wedding ring from when she married our father. And she of course gave it to him," Lizzette said. "He was in love and he was so so happy. I’ve never seen him happier."
But fate had other plans.
On Saturday, July 16, on Rinaldi near Sepulveda in Mission Hills, Freddy was hit and killed by a pickup truck.
He was a block from home.
The driver never stopped, leaving Freddy to die in the middle of the street.
"If someone’s injured, render aid or call 911!", said LAPD Valley Traffic Officer Harvey Freeman. "You just don’t take off like a coward… in my opinion, yes, they were cowards in what they did. This was a cowardice act."
Losing Freddy is hard enough.
It’s left a family grief stricken, and his girlfriend, who learned of the planned proposal after he died, devastated.
But the thought that someone could just leave him there to die when maybe a call to 911 could have saved his life is too much to bear.
"You left. You left him there to die alone in the street. Like without a thought that he’s a person, a son, a brother, boyfriend, an uncle, a friend. This was a person. His life had meaning," said a visibly shaken Lizzette.
Freddy Perez / Family photo
She's made it her mission to speak for him on behalf of their family.
She is his voice.
"If this person thinks the story is going to go away, it’s not. It’s not going to disappear. My brother’s life meant something."
It is a case that haunts even veteran investigators like Officer Freeman.
"The weight of what we see other people do to other human beings is unimaginable," he said sadly.
Together with Freddy’s family, Officer Freeman is on a mission too - to find the driver of that black pickup truck, the one that hit Freddy and then just left.
Pictured here is a black pickup truck similar to the vehicle that struck and killed 30-year-old Freddy Perez. The hit-and-run driver has not been located.
Had they stayed and done the right thing, both legally and morally, the crash would most likely have been written up as a tragic accident.
"We don’t know if that driver is a female or male", said Freeman. "But we do know the truck they were driving is a GMC Sierra, HD or Denali, 3/4 ton or 1 ton black pickup truck newer model… 2017 or newer. We don’t know who they are, but they do. And every time they look at the front left side of their truck they have to know that they took a life that night and all they had to do was stay."
Staying might not have saved Freddy, but it would have saved his family so much grief, so many questions, so much pain.
"You can’t bring my brother back anymore. You can’t, but you could at least give my family some closure. They deserve it. We deserve to know what really happened that night. And why you left. Why you didn’t stop to try to help him."
Police would like that question answered too.
There’s a $50,000 reward being offered for information leading to the arrest of that driver.
If you have any information about the hit-and-run please call Officer Freeman at the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division at 818-644-8115.
A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help Freddy’s family pay for his burial.