CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The family of a man killed by a hit-and-run driver in north Charlotte Monday evening are speaking out because they say they cannot find peace until the driver who hit him is arrested.
Keith Anthony Ricks, 45, was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle on Mallard Creek Road around 5:15 Monday evening when the minivan pulled out of a side street and hit him broadside, throwing him into the path of an oncoming car, police said.
“I don't know how to explain the pain I'm going through,” Rick’s fiancée Katherine Zorrilla said.
"I was the first person (police) called, and I couldn't believe it," Zorrilla said. "All I want now is justice. I want someone to turn this man in."
Theresa Ricks, the victim's sister, said her brother was a free spirit who was most free when he was riding his new Harley -Davidson motorcycle.
"The person who hit my brother and just left him there, didn't even stop, that's a ruthless person," she said. A ruthless person that doesn't need to be walking the street."
The driver of the oncoming car that struck Ricks, a 64-year-old woman who did not want to be identified, told Eyewitness News she had seen the minivan speeding as it made the turn.
"He never stopped, he never stopped. I mean he just flew," she said.
She broke down as she described how she tried to stop, but could not avoid hitting Ricks.
"When he came off that motorcycle he went straight under my car, he was sliding," she said.
Pastor Amere May drove up moments later, just as the minivan was racing away.
"I see the car flying, then I heard the horn and I looked a couple of feet and he was on his back like this right here," May said.
He walked up to the motorcycle, still on its side, and Ricks, lying on his back.
"Yeah, he was still alive, he was fighting, he was breathing, so we started praying for him, he was on the ground," May said.
He and others prayed for Ricks, who died on the scene.
Police said the found the minivan Friday but no one has been charged.
“There is no way the way he broadsided that man, that he didn't know he hit that motorcycle. There is no way,” the other driver said.
“For the person not to stop was really heartless. I can see accidents happen, but to not stop and continue -- that was really heartless,” May added.
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