What to Know
- Carmen Ruiz, 48, and her husband, Juan Lopez Rivera, 50, were killed in a multi-vehicle, hit-and-run crash in Bustleton late Saturday.
- Police say a driver struck one vehicle, then struck the couple's, which set off a chain-reaction crash involving three more vehicles.
- The driver was then picked up by another vehicle which fled the scene, police said.
Loved ones are mourning a husband and wife who were killed by a hit-and-run driver during a multi-vehicle, chain-reaction crash in Philadelphia’s Bustleton neighborhood.
Carmen Ruiz, 48, and her husband, Juan Lopez Rivera, 50, were inside a 2005 Mitsubishi Endeavor traveling on Bustleton Avenue and Red Lion Road Saturday, shortly before midnight.
At the same time, the driver of a 2019 Chevy Camaro was speeding down Bustleton Avenue and crashed into a 2010 Lexus that was stopped at a red light. The driver tried to speed away but then collided with the couple’s Endeavor, setting off a chain-reaction crash involving three more vehicles, police said.
The driver of the Camaro then left his vehicle and was picked up by a white Lexus which fled the scene, according to investigators.
Ruiz and Rivera both died from their injuries. Five people in the other vehicles, including two children, had non-life-threatening injuries.
“They was the best,” Ruiz’s sister, Veronica Navarro, told NBC10. “They was wonderful people. Innocent.”
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Rivera worked as a handyman for a family business. Family members showed NBC10 video of Ruiz and Rivera dancing at a relative’s birthday party hours before the deadly crash. They said they knew there was a problem when the couple didn’t return their text messages.
Investigators described the hit-and-run driver as a man with a dark complexion in his early 20's wearing a black suit and white shirt.
“Come and say you’re story. At least, ‘I’m sorry.’ I lost my parents,” the couple’s daughter, Cynthia Lopez, said. “They were my life.”
If you have any information on the hit-and-run or the suspect, please call Philadelphia Police.
