Girl, 14, crossing street with mom killed in West Philly hit-and-run

A driver struck and killed a teenage girl crossing the street with her mother in West Philadelphia Thursday night and then drove away, Philadelphia police said.

Dawn Watson, 14, was crossing Haverford Avenue at 66th Street with her mother around 9:35 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2024, when a dark-colored sedan hit the girl, Philadelphia police said.

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The driver -- of what appeared to be a dark-colored Mercedes-Benz sedan -- was speeding eastbound on Haverford Avenue at the time and did not stop after striking the 14-year-old, Philadelphia Police Inspector Michael Gormley said.

"The sedan knocked the girl away from her mother," Gormley said. "And, unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries."

The girl was knocked a significant distance, Gormley said. Investigators later said the car was going at a high rate of speed.

Officials said the scene extended over an entire city block.

Dawn's mother was distraught, investigators said.

“The mother was distraught, obviously," Gormley said. "The daughter was knocked a significant distance and the mother had a hard time locating her daughter. We found the mother hysterical a few blocks away.”

Police didn't reveal any more details about the suspected hit-and-run driver.

On Friday, the School District of Philadelphia said that Dawn was an eighth-grade student at Lewis C. Cassidy School which is just one block away from where she was killed.

This was her first year at Cassidy School and school leaders say they remember her as a leader who loved to write and came to school every day with a smile.

"She’s very smart. Always loved her friends. Always loved school. She was one of those students that you would never forget," Dawn's former teacher Rabia Abdul said. “Turn yourself in. It’s sad. It’s a child. It’s a human being. Not the right thing to do to just leave it as if it’s ok. It’s not ok.”

Counselors were on hand at the school on Friday and will be available for students as long as they are needed, officials said. Her principal is pleading for the driver to turn themselves into police.

A small memorial has been set up near the intersection where she was hit and killed.

NBC10 was able to talk to a neighbor who has lived in the area for a long time. She told us that she is heartbroken for the family and added that speed has been an issue for a long time.

"I’ve been here 25 years. And in 25 years, just about every month, or two, one of our neighbors loses a car or something like that. But now we’ve lost life. So what do we do? What are we gonna do about it? And they won’t put no bumpers out here for us," Sharon Jones said. “You can’t just kill somebody and leave them on the street like that and then keep on going. Really?”

Data shows deadly impact of pedestrian crashes in Philadelphia

Dawn was the fourth child killed this year after being hit by a car in Philadelphia, according to Open Data Philly. That’s the most children who died this way since 2019, which is the earliest year of public data available. 

In total, there have been more than three dozen pedestrians killed in 2024. That’s down 20% from this time last year. 

(This map shows where deadly pedestrian crashes happened in Philadelphia.)

Nearly half of pedestrian-involved crashes are hit-and-runs. Thursday night's crash was at least the 18th deadly hit-and-run in the city just this year and there have been more than 120 over the past five years.   

Police solve very few hit-and-runs. The data shows they haven't made arrests in 83% of these type of crashes. This year, only two people have been arrested out of the 17 previous hit-and-runs where a pedestrian died.