Family mourns man killed in Northwest DC hit-and-run
WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - A family is mourning the loss of a D.C. man who died after a hit-and-run in Northwest on Tuesday.
"One day he was here saying good bye to me I'll be right back and then he never came back," said Danny Olaya's sister, Becky.
She says he was killed by a driver who was caught up in a fit of road rage.
Olaya was walking along 4th Street Northwest with his friends overnight Monday into Tuesday.
The family has been told that a dark S.U.V. zoomed by the group so they yelled at the driver to slow down.
The driver reportedly stopped, reversed, and confronted them - and that's when things went bad.
"At 1:30 a.m. I woke up with a strange feeling in my stomach," Becky Guzman Olaya said.
She believes that was the exact time her brother Danny was intentionally hit by a vehicle at 4th and T Streets near LeDroit Park.
"From what I understand he said he was going to get a gun. That's when my brother took a picture of the license plate and started walking away from the car," Becky said.
She says police retrieved the picture from Danny's phone, providing the lead that would help them locate the vehicle, which friends say the suspect used to take his life after they argued. Danny was initially revived by medics, but the 35-year-old's injuries were too severe.
He died more than 24 hours after being hit. "We were hoping for a miracle but he was pronounced brain dead at the hospital," Becky said.Danny Olaya leaves behind a 3-year-old son. His sister and mother say he was a fun, devoted father... with a smile that would light up the room.
A sound engineer with a passion for making beats, Danny Olaya often helped friends in the recording studio and had been out that night at an open mic event.
His mother, Carmina, who flew in from Colombia when she got the news- had just spoken with him on the phone that day. She says she just can't understand it.
While the vehicle was recovered police are still looking for the suspect.
The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone that provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any homicide committed in the District of Columbia. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at 202-727-9099. Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to the department's TEXT TIP LINE by sending a text message to 50411.