GAINESVILLE, Ga. — A 13-year-old Gainesville boy was hit by a car while riding his bike home from a haircut and the driver left him bleeding in the road without stopping.
Celia Vazquez Garcia says her son, Diego Martinez, was riding home from a haircut on Aug. 29 when a car hit him near Hazel Street and Central Avenue. Diego got up off the pavement himself and called her.
She never blamed the driver for the impact. She blames what came after.
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“My child wasn’t just anything he hit; it was a kid,” she said. “It was a 13-year-old he hit.”
Diego was bleeding from the back of his head after the crash. A hospital stapled the wound and sent him home without imaging, his mother said. Days later, after headaches and blurry vision at school, a CT scan found a hematoma, she said.
“He’s got a concussion as well. His eyesight’s blurry at moments,” she said. “He gets unbalanced. I know he’s traumatized right now.”
Video of the crash shows Diego riding into the intersection without stopping, and his mother says she has already talked to her son about it.
“I can see that part, but the part that really messes me up, he didn’t stop,” she said. “They messed with the wrong mom.”
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Gainesville police say the case remains under investigation and no charges have been filed.
Vazquez Garcia says she is looking for a gray Nissan Sentra from roughly 2008 to 2012. She is not waiting on an arrest.
“I’m going to be doing my job and my job is going to be going house by house, knocking,” she said.
Vazquez Garcia says Diego barely eats, stays on the front porch and has not gone back to soccer. She gave his bike away because he cannot stand to look at it.
“I promised my son I would look for this person and I’m going to find this person sooner or later,” she said. “If it takes me days, months, weeks, whatever, but I’m going to find him.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Gainesville Police Department.
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