driver

Grandmother Pushes Girl Out of Way in Hit-and-Run, Family Says

The driver briefly paused before taking off.

A driver struck an 8-year-old girl and her 55-year-old grandmother as they were walking on their way to breakfast, then took off and left them in the street last Wednesday.

The grandmother, Mae Baham, tried to push her granddaughter out of the way, enduring the brunt of the hit, the family told NBC4.

"She loves her granddaughter. Emonie is her everything," Gala Baham, Mae's sister in law, said.

Inglewood police were still on the hunt for the driver of a dark green or black Nissan Altima Tuesday after the grandmother suffered severe injuries, and was left in a coma. The girl suffered moderate injuries.

The girl and her grandmother were crossing the street in a marked crosswalk when the driver ran a red light, Inglewood police said.

The crash occurred 5:30 a.m. at La Brea Avenue and Queen Street, blocks away from the Inglewood Police Department.

After a brief pause, the driver took off.

"To stop and then see what you did, and to drive off -- it's just crazy," Gala said. "How could you do that? These are people, not just something lying in the street."

Emonie, the girl who was also hit, was doing OK, her family said. But she keeps asking for her grandmother.

The family said that Mae was still fighting for her life.

"She's a fighter," Gala said. "She's not going to give up. She's not the type of person you can easily knock down."

Investigators said the car would likely have a broken windshield and front-end damage. They were still searching for clues from surveillance footage in the area.

"We really need to find that driver," Gala said. "And I hope that he [or she] would definitely see this -- and come and just turn yourself in."

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