PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police are investigating a pair of hit-and-runs over the weekend, including one that was fatal and another that injured Sixers guard Kelly Oubre Jr.
Both incidents happened about a day apart. Police are trying to identify and find the drivers who were involved.
The fatal hit-and-run happened around 6 p.m. Sunday at Whitaker Avenue and Loudon Street in Feltonville. The person behind the wheel of a white van hit a man who was helping someone change a tire, police said.
A neighbor told our partners at NBC10 they heard a young man screaming, 'Oh my God, he hit him, he hit him,' and came running out alongside another neighbor.
"We saw the young man laying in the street — it was a mess,” the neighbor explained.
The victim, identified as 24-year-old Ezequiel Morales, died at the hospital.
Later that night, police recovered the van but there was no sign of the driver.
Nearly 24 hours earlier, the driver of a silver car hit Oubre as he was crossing the intersection of Spruce and Hicks streets in Center City, police said.
Sarah Clark Stuart, head of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, said these are just the latest examples of what she calls a hit-and-run epidemic in the city.
“It’s not the car that did it, it’s the motorist, it’s the driver. It’s a person. And that person has responsibilities to stay where they are and help the person that they have hit,” she said.
Oubre suffered a broken rib. He was treated at the hospital and released Saturday night, the Sixers said.
“Shows you that it could happen to any of us,” Sixers star Joel Embiid said after Sunday night’s game — the first without Oubre. “I’m glad that he wasn’t too bad because it could have been worse.”
“We just want to show our love to him, tell him we love him,” Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey said. “Shoutout to KO. He’s a fighter so we know he’ll be OK and we can’t wait to see him.”
Oubre is out indefinitely and will be re-evaluated in a week.
“We just want him to take his time and recover, and we got his back,” Embiid added.