Hit-and-run victim reunited with dog after crash that separated them in downtown L.A.
Early on Feb. 28, Sandra Martin was crossing East 4th Street near downtown L.A.’s skid row, her service dog Little Man in her arms, when she was struck by a driver in a reversing sedan.
The driver reportedly pulled Martin out from underneath the vehicle before leaving the scene, and the 61-year-old was left to be treated for severe injuries at a hospital while her canine companion went missing.
After more than two weeks, the pair were reunited Wednesday.
“I’m doing alright now, now that I’ve got Little Man,” Martin said in a video posted by the Los Angeles Police Department‘s Central Traffic Division.
LAPD Det. Juan Campos asked Martin how she was feeling.
“I’m really, really sore, but it’s all worth it now that I’ve got him back,” she replied.
Martin held Little Man and thanked Campos and the public for finding the golden chihuahua-terrier that sat comfortably in her arms as she spoke to the camera.
“I’m so thrilled he’s not lost forever,” she said.
But the reunion was marred by Martin’s lingering injuries.
Kevin Nishita was shot in a November attempted robbery. Two suspects are in custody, and police are seeking the third.
“He should turn himself in, do the right thing,” she said of the driver who struck her. “He totally destroyed my life.”
Martin said she has lost some of her independence and mobility and was still in immense pain.
After the man pulled Martin from underneath his Hyundai Genesis, police said, she asked him whether he was leaving.
“I sure am,” he allegedly answered.
Martin called the man’s actions “cold.”
Investigators are also seeking the driver of a “newer model” Jeep Wrangler who may have witnessed the crash and left the scene.
Police said the Wrangler appeared to be following the Genesis that struck Martin.
The incident was the first in a series of hit-and-runs reported that week in Los Angeles, two of which were fatal.
On March 4, 32-year-old Joshua Brown was struck and killed by a vehicle in a crosswalk in the Baldwin Hills area.
The vehicle, which police did not identify, left the scene. Police were investigating whether Brown was struck by more than one vehicle.
The next day, a 22-year-old man on an electric scooter was struck by a minivan in Koreatown and then hit by another vehicle, which dragged him several feet before leaving the scene. The driver of the minivan remained in the area, and the other vehicle was not identified.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
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