Ayesha Poole had a message for the driver who struck and killed her daughter and then fled the scene.
"She was only eight," Poole said while in tears. "You hit her and she flew from the corner to the middle of the block! And you kept going! How?!"
Poole and other loved ones attended a vigil for 8-year-old Jayanna Powell Saturday. Jayanna and her siblings were walking home from school Friday around 3:15 p.m. and approaching the crosswalk at 63rd Street and Lansdowne Avenue in Philadelphia's Overbrook neighborhood when the crash occurred.
"We was just crossing the street just to get the bus," Jayanna's 12-year-old brother Hassan Cox said.
Cox said he was holding his sister's hand as they crossed 63rd Street when they were struck by a driver speeding through the intersection trying to catch a yellow light. The force of the impact was so strong that the girl was thrown 20 feet, her family said. A witness said the girl's backpack also tore open, splaying paper and books all over the street.
Cox was knocked into a nearby car, the family said. Jayanna was rushed to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with serious injuries. She passed away around 6 p.m. Friday, police said.
"You hit a baby and kept going," Poole said. "And didn't even care to think! Nothing! You left my baby helpless in the street!"
Police are searching for a gray or silver Nissan Altima or Maxima with damage to the headlights and grille. The car was last seen heading southbound on 63rd Street. Cox described what the driver looked like during Saturday's vigil.
"He was bald. He had a half-beard at his chin," Cox said. "He had white glasses on."
Ronnie Thomas, the girl's grandfather, talked directly to the driver after his granddaughter's death saying "you should have stopped and made sure the two little kids are alright and then gone about your business."
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"But you didn't do none of that. You hit them and you ran," he said. "Who does that?"
The girl's uncle said he's offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the driver.
Anyone with information about the driver or whereabouts of the car is asked to call the Philadelphia Police tipline at 215.686.TIPS.
