A 7-year-old girl walking to school was killed and her mother was seriously injured Monday morning after they were run down by a hit-and-run driver in New Jersey, authorities said.
The girl, Sheyla Pichardo, was hit while walking at Van Buren Place and 61st Street in West New York at about 8:30 a.m., police said.
The SUV that hit the girl, a black Chevrolet Tahoe, took off afterward.
Surveillance footage from the scene shows the SUV hit the mother and daughter while they crossed a street. The driver gets out of the vehicle, looks at the girl and mother, then gets back in the vehicle and speeds off.
The girl was taken to Palisades Medical Center after the impact, authorities said. She was pronounced dead sometime afterward.
"My heart is destroyed with what happened to my daughter," said Javier Picharro, the girl's father. "I didn't think this could happen to me or my wife."
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Dozens of police officers were at the scene after the hit-and-run, and a small memorial shrine had already been set up for the child.
Picharro said he hoped authorities caught the driver, who he alleged had gotten out of the car before driving away.
""This is not what a a man," he said. "That is what a coward does.
The hit-and-run came after three people died in similar incidents in New York City Saturday night and Sunday.
No arrests have been made.
