Police ID suspect car in hit-and-run that killed teen on Sacramento-area road with no sidewalk
Police have identified a suspect vehicle in a hit-and-run collision that killed a teenager on a Sacramento-area roadway that lacked sidewalks.
The California Highway Patrol’s North Sacramento office announced Tuesday that the vehicle is believed to be a red Mitsubishi Lancer made between 2000 to 2003 with right front-end damage. The car may have a broken headlight, a broken windshield or a broken passenger-side mirror. The sedan was seen traveling northbound on Walerga Road near Penwith Way around the time of the hit-and-run that killed Shawn Jordan, 18. Police found further evidence that the driver then headed east on Don Julio Boulevard.
On Monday, officials had identified the car as possibly being a Toyota Corolla.
Anyone with information about the crash can contact CHP’s North Sacramento office at 916-348-2300.
Jordan slipped into a coma on June 16 and died in the hospital five days after the crash. One of his aunts, Liz Ames, said the teenager had been walking home to his dad’s house. He was hit by a car on the north end of the Walerga Road overpass that crosses Roseville Road.
The family is desperate for information. Through tears, Ames said, “It’s not gonna make him come back, but we want justice.”
Although the driver didn’t stop, a homeless man named Dave, Ames said, heard the crash and rushed to help the 18-year-old. Dave called an ambulance for Jordan and later returned the teenager’s phone to his family.
The teenager is one of dozens of people who have been killed on Sacramento County roads this year. According to data published by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, at least 24 of the dead were people on foot. The nonprofit Smart Growth America revealed that the capital region was the 20th most deadly metropolitan area for pedestrians in the country.
‘He was almost home’
Jordan grew up as the youngest of a trio of boys: a slightly older brother, Seth Jr., born less than a year before Jordan’s birth on Dec. 12, 2005, and Berkeley, now 20, Ames’ son.
“They’ve all been together the whole life,” Ames said. Watching the three of them grow up, she said Jordan “was the most innocent. He’s just a quiet soul, just so kind.”
Under the name Paranoid, Jordan released music on Spotify and YouTube with sometimes eccentric song titles: “A Song for the Moon” was one (he loved the moon, Ames said). He made music with his cousin, Berkeley.
Jordan was drawn to purple and black; he favored those colors when he painted those nails. He dyed his hair purple. He enjoyed fashion.
On the day of the fatal crash, Jordan had spent the day with his partner — the two of them got lunch and went shopping. The pair had a nice day, Ames said, but “he was such a good kid, he was going home early.” At about 8:10 p.m., Jordan was walking along a part of Walerga Road that has no sidewalk. He was around the corner from his father’s house.
“He was minutes away from home when this happened,” Ames said. “He was almost home.”
At the time of his death, Jordan was working on his GED and lived part-time with each of his parents, Marie Martinez and Seth Jordan.
In addition to his brother, Jordan has two sisters: Christina Richardson, his older sister, and a younger sister, Lennox, who is 10.
