1-year-old child and man killed in Playa del Rey hit-and-run

A 1-year-old child and a man are dead after a hit-and-run crash in Playa del Rey, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The crash was reported at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday near the 6800 block of South Vista Del Mar, police said. There, two vehicles crashed and the driver of one of the vehicles took off, running toward the beach.

One of the vehicles was carrying two adults and a 1-year-old child. A man, who is estimated to be about 30 years old, died at the scene. The child and a woman who is about 30 years old were taken to a nearby hospital. The child ultimately died of their injuries.

Cory Cooper, who lives in the area, said he tried to help the injured child after he heard the crash.

“When I walked up to the accident, there were some people already there and there was a man holding the child, and it didn’t look like the child was doing well, so we gave him CPR, waited for 911 and then they pulled out another passenger while we were giving CPR and she didn’t look good, either,” Cooper said. “And that’s when the ambulances came.”

Cooper, who is a father of two children, himself, said he called 911 and was given guidance on how to perform CPR on the child until first responders arrived. He said amid his gut-wrenching effort to help, another vehicle arrived at the scene and a woman ran toward them.

“(She) ran over and was holding the child and trying to get him warm, saying, ‘He’s still warm. He’s still warm,’” Cooper recalled. “We held the baby and we tried to give the baby CPR for as long as we could, as best as we could, until the ambulance got there.”

“It’s something you don’t wish on anybody, but that was awful,” he added.

The names of the child and the man who were killed in the crash have not been released.

LAPD said officers are still searching for the hit-and-run driver, who is believed to be a 25-year-old man. The suspect vehicle is a white Jeep.

It’s unclear what caused the crash.