What to Know
- An 82-year-old woman walking with groceries was struck and killed while crossing Bustleton Avenue Thursday night.
- The striking driver left the deadly crash scene.
- Police are still looking for the driver
An 82-year-old woman who escaped communist Russia and became one of the first Eastern Europeans to open a business in Northeast Philadelphia's Bustleton neighborhood was killed in a hit-and-run Thursday evening.
Yulia Sherman was crossing Bustleton Avenue near Hendrix Street in the around 6 p.m. when she was struck by a vehicle, officials said. The car sped off.
First responders arrived and tried to give the woman CPR, but she died a short time later.
"She loved the Bustleton area," Sherman's son-in-law, Mark Ingerman, said Friday. "She was an amazing part of this community."
Sherman loved everything about the United States and she raised her children to be such as socially conscious as she was, Ingerman added.
On Friday, he pleaded with community members to come forward with any information that could lead to an arrest.
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"This area is usually packed with people," Ingerman said. "I know somebody, somewhere, was sitting in traffic, somebody was walking across the street ... somebody had to have seen something."
Police described the hit-and-run vehicle as a dark-colored Jeep or SUV.
The woman's grocery bags and vehicle parts were found at the location.
"Just leave somebody like this... What kind of human being do you have to be?" witness Nana Kora asked.
