Hit-and-run victim makes plea to public

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A 13-year-old boy is asking the driver who hit him and left him lying on the side of an Albuquerque road to turn himself in.

The boy's parents say they feel lucky the hit-and-run driver only broke their son's leg.

Less than a week after missing school to go to his grandfather's funeral, a Taylor Middle School student is now at the University of New Mexico Hospital instead of returning to class like he expected.

DeAndre Garcia is making an emotional plea to the public.

“Any witnesses who saw can call,” Garcia says. “They can turn him in, or if the guy even has any heart, he can turn himself in. He just hit me and took off.”

Garcia has a cast from his toe to his hip as he recovers from the broken leg.

He says he was riding his bike to school Tuesday morning near Fourth Street NW and El Pueblo Road in the North Valley when an oncoming car hit him.

Garcia says all he saw was a white Pontiac Grand Am with dark-tinted windows.

“I saw the car when it was 10 feet away, and it turned towards me and hit me,” Garcia says. “I landed 5 feet away from my bike, and it makes me believe he did it on purpose because he didn't even stop.

"He just hit me and took off, and he turned towards me so perfectly.”

Garcia says he couldn't get up and just screamed for help until a deputy stopped.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office is investigating, but officials say they don't have any witnesses other than Garcia at this point.

Garcia is hoping to be out of the hospital Thursday, and he'll have that cast on for six to eight weeks.