Friends and family are mourning a teenage girl who was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver only a week before she was set to graduate high school.
Markaylah Jackson, 17, was walking in the crosswalk from the northbound side of Roosevelt Boulevard at Adams Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Monday in the Crescentville section of the city when she was struck by a speeding minivan, police said.
The impact knocked Jackson approximately 180 feet down the road. The driver of the vehicle -- a silver, early 2000 Chevy Venture with front-end and windshield damage -- then drove eastbound onto Adams Avenue, according to officials.
Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene by a responding medic at 11:45 p.m.
Witnesses told investigators Jackson was on her cellphone at the time. The force of impact knocked her out of her shoes, said police.
Surveillance video shows the hit-and-run vehicle traveling north on the Boulevard approaching the intersection of Whitaker Avenue prior to the crash. Philadelphia Police urged the driver to surrender on vehicular homicide charges.
"The driver of that vehicle struck someone and killed them and left the scene," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. "They have to turn themselves in because they are going to get caught."
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Residents say the area where the crash occurred is a difficult intersection to navigate due to pedestrians getting "walk" signals at the same time cars get a green light. Police believe the hit-and-run driver had the green light while Jackson also had the walk signal. They still made it clear however that Jackson had the right of way.
"That driver had an obligation to stop," said Philadelphia Police Captain John Wilczynski. "They really didn't do anything horribly wrong until they struck the pedestrian and left."
Jackson's mother, Rashida Walker, told NBC10 her daughter, who was her first-born, was about to graduate from Excel Academy.
"She was going to be a nurse," Walker said. "She was going to go try to get into the Temple nursing school."
The teen's loved ones are begging the hit-and-run driver to surrender.
"We all know it was an accident but just turn yourself in and let the family get some closure to this," said Jackson's aunt, Ophena Walker.
If you have any information on the incident, please call the Accident Investigation District at 215-685-3180 or call 911.
