Emotional vigil held for delivery worker killed by hit-and-run driver in the Bronx
SOUNDVIEW, The Bronx (WABC) -- An emotional gathering was held Thursday night for a 21-year-old delivery worker killed by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx.
Christian Catalan's family members are pleading for the driver who killed the 21-year-old delivery worker to turn herself in.
"He does have a family. He does have people that love him so much," Christian Catalan's aunt Elizabeth Carino said. "And we expect, you know, for these people to have a little heart, step up to the plate, and face the consequences."
"She needs to be found and she needs to serve consequences," family member Ivelisse Rosario-Balbuena said. "It's not right. You know, he's a young vibrant kid who was just trying to earn a living."
On Sunday, a woman driving a stolen Jeep, was, according to witnesses, leaving a barber shop, when she sped away after an argument with someone and then struck Catalan at East 172nd Street and Metcalf Avenue.
She then fled the scene in another car after calmly removing a baby in a car seat from the stolen vehicle and placing the child in the other car.
At the vigil for Catalan at the scene of the hit and run, his family says that driver needs to do the right thing now.
"I'm just hoping that she knows, as a mother, what my nephew's mother's going through," Carino said.
The crash at the intersection that killed Catalan, happened in an especially deadly week for young delivery men on bikes.
The NYC Food Delivery Movement says three more were killed by cars around the city and one is in critical condition after being beaten and robbed of his bike.
"People order food, and someone's gotta deliver it. And this is a tough job," said Roberto Martinez of NYC Food Delivery Movement.
The organization is helping raise money for a funeral here, and a burial in Mexico. Catalan was born here but was sending money to his mom in Mexico ever since his dad passed away.
"He was the sole supporter of his mom, with his four siblings in Mexico," Carino said.
After having his bike stolen at least once and other close calls in traffic, he had told other family members he was looking for a safer way to do that.
"It's heartbreaking for the whole family to go through this because the extent of the accident, it's just unbearable," Carino said.
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