DALLAS — A man has been arrested after a 14-year-old was hit and killed by a vehicle in southern Dallas Friday, police said.
The crash, which happened at around 7:55 a.m., shut down Ledbetter Drive from Marsalis Avenue to University Hills Boulevard Friday morning as Dallas police officers canvassed the scene around a black Mercedes SUV, video from WFAA’s chopper showed.
The boy, identified Saturday by the Dallas County Medical Examiner as Jonathan Ayala, was taken to a local hospital where he died.
In a news release, Dallas police said the driver and the passenger, 47-year-old James Grant, got into an argument as they drove south on Marsalis Avenue.
Grant started struggling with the driver and assaulted them, police said. As the driver went east onto Ledbetter, Grant reached across the driver causing the car to go off the road and hit Ayala, who was walking in the grass.
“I heard it this morning when I was on my way up to school, I saw the police there,” said Craig Berry.
Although Berry saw the cop cars and medics working the wreck, he didn’t learn the details of what happened until a little later.
“Just knowing that a kid was hit here,” Berry said. “Yeah, that’s bad.”
Berry said he immediately thought of his teenage daughter.
“What if I had her walking, that easily could have been her,” Berry said.
Dallas ISD said Ayala was hit while walking to class at Boude Storey Middle School, a nearly two-mile trek.
“You’ve got friends who are emotional behind this you have a principal, you have the school administration. You have teachers who are being impacted because they knew this student very well,” said DISD Deputy Chief of Communication Robyn Harris. “They knew that the student made this particular trek every single day.”
The district sent letters home to parents and brought in counseling staff to help students and staff cope. It also sent representatives to support the family at the hospital.
“This is the call that you would never want to receive to know that your child has gone off to school after you’ve kissed them, you loved on them, you believe that they’re returning home and that’s not going to be the case for this family,” said Harris.
Police said Grant had stolen property from the driver and ran from the scene. Officers later found Grant and he was arrested on felony murder charges.
“He was in the act of committing a felony offense which caused the death of the teen,” DPD said in a release.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
More Texas headlines: