Grandmother goes to a gas station and then heads home. She never makes it, cops say.
Mercedes Sarmiento was crossing busy Southwest Eighth Street in front of a gas station Monday night when she was hit by a black car, police said.
But, according to witnesses, another car heading in the opposite direction — or an object — “may have initiated the accident,” police said Tuesday.
Sarmiento, 61, who according to Miami Herald news partner CBS4 lived a block away and was heading home, was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital. She later died from her injuries.
Police say Sarmiento was walking about 8:30 p.m. Monday in the area of Southwest 44th Avenue and Eighth Street — not far from Graceland Memorial Park North cemetery — when she was hit.
Family members told CBS4 that Sarmiento — who stopped at the Valero Gas Station, 4401 SW Eighth St. — was the “rock of the family.”
Kiara Delva, a spokeswoman for Miami police, said Tuesday that the driver of the black car stayed on scene, but detectives were still handling the incident as a “hit-and-run crash.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published March 18, 2019 at 10:33 PM.
