101-Year-Old Man Killed in Hit-and-Run in LA

Witnesses chased down the driver and detained him until officers arrived, police said

A 101-year-old man's life ended in a crosswalk when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver early Wednesday, Los Angeles police said.

The victim, Jose Noriega, was crossing the intersection of Lorena Street and Opal Street in Boyle Heights when a van hit him at about 6 a.m., the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Police said witnesses followed the fleeing 1997 Chevrolet Astro van and blocked its path a short distance away. The witnesses detained the driver until police arrived and arrested him.

Noriega was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just before 8 a.m.

Friends of the victim told NBC4 that Noriega crossed that street every morning and went to a local bakery for sweet bread and coffee. 

Noriega was described as someone who was "full of life" and someone who "loved his community."

"At one hundred years of age he was on a ladder putting up his Christmas lights," a neighbor said.

According to friends, Noriega would stop by a church near the bakery every day, and even vacuum after mass.

"The minute he walked down the street, we would always look forward to his hellos," a principal at a neighborhood school said.

Community members told NBC4 they are outraged over Noriega's death at a crosswalk that many consider "dangerous."

The owners of the bakery told NBC4 that in the two and half years that they have been there, there have been five major accidents in the crosswalk, two of which were deadly.

The driver in Wednesday's accident, identified as 41-year-old Los Angeles resident Ricardo Avalos, was booked on a charge of vehicular manslaughter. He was being held on $50,000 bail.

Alcohol or drugs were not a factor in the crash, police said.

Investigators are searching for additional witnesses.

Gadi Schwartz contributed to this report.

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