11 Jun 2020
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a hit-and-run motorist on Tuesday, July 2nd. The Phoenix Police Department is looking for the driver of a Ford Expedition that left the road and struck and killed a man who was walking on a sidewalk along 23rd Avenue.
Fox 10 in Phoenix reports that Steven Hoffman Jr., 37, was near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Dunlap street at approximately 12:00 a.m. A vehicle which is being described as a possibly dark green Ford Expedition drifted onto the sidewalk, striking Hoffman. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Eyewitnesses to the incident said that the driver did not stop and turned onto 19th Avenue and headed in a southbound direction.
Nicole Smith, Hoffman’s sister, said that her brother was a kind and generous person who had been like a father to his nephews and who wanted to have a family of his own someday but never got the chance.
Smith told reporters that just two weeks before the accident, he had survived a heart attack in which he flat-lined four times. “My brother was a great guy,” Smith said. “He would give the shirt off his back, emotions on his sleeve.”
Smith and other surviving family members are hoping that the hit-and-run driver will find it in their hearts to turn themselves into the authorities and be accountable for what happened.
Phoenix Police are asking for anyone with any further information may contact them directly or anonymously through their Silent Witness Hotline.