CHARLOTTE — The driver of an SUV did not stop after hitting and killing a 26-year-old mother on a busy southwest Charlotte road Saturday night, police said.
Around 10 p.m. on Saturday, MEDIC was called to an area of Nations Ford Road at the Interstate 77 interchange for a pedestrian-struck call.
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Police said Olivia Lapiana Kowalski was crossing the road when the SUV hit her on its front, left side. Kowalski died at the scene, MEDIC said.
“She would light up every room she walked in,” said Molly Greene, Kowalski’s best friend.
Kowalski was a nail tech, dedicated friend, and loving mother to her eight-year-old son Kayden, Greene told Channel 9′s Joe Bruno.
“I just want her to be remembered as the beautiful, loving, caring, selfless person that she was,” Greene said.
The SUV drove onto I-77 North after the wreck without stopping to help Kowalski, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.
“The news reports are, ‘Oh it was a pedestrian,’” Greene said. “It is not just a pedestrian. She was a mother. She was a daughter. She was a sister. She was a friend. She was important. She meant something to all of us.”
Greene and a group of Kowalski’s friends are pushing for justice. They want whoever struck and killed their friend to come forward.
“The fact that someone could do that to her and it could be so brutal, and then to keep going,” Greene said. “How do you even sleep at night?”
Detectives have video of the crash and are working to identify the vehicle and its driver.
“If no one else is watching, God is watching,” Greene said in a message to the driver. “God is watching you and he knows what you did. So come forward.”
Speed does not appear to be a factor and it’s not known if the driver was impaired.
This is a developing story; check back at wsoctv.com for updates.
(WATCH BELOW: Pedestrian struck and killed in southwest Charlotte, MEDIC says)
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