As D.C. Girl Is Mourned, Police Look For Driver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 25, 2007; Page B01
Six-year-old Crysta Spencer had just finished eating peanut butter crackers and gulping down grape Kool-Aid when she dashed across the street toward her cousin.
"Stop!" her mother, Christina Spencer, screamed as she spotted an approaching vehicle.
  Shannon Johnson, 15, at a memorial for Crysta Spencer. Many drivers ignored the stop signs installed yesterday. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post) |
It was too late.
"The car kept going," Spencer said yesterday, a day after she saw her firstborn die in front of her home in Northeast Washington.
A green sport-utility vehicle knocked Crysta out of her shoes, threw her into the air and ran over her, according to witness accounts. The incident took place about 4:30 p.m. Monday on Sixth Street NE, near Orleans Place. Crysta was not in a crosswalk, police said.
Police are looking for the driver of the SUV, which had tinted windows and may have had Maryland tags.
Spencer said she is doubtful that police will find the SUV's driver. "They'll get another case and drop this one," she said, her head buried in her hands.
Crysta was the 10th pedestrian killed in a traffic accident in the District this year. Last year, there were 17 deaths.
A stream of people, many of them strangers, stopped by Spencer's house yesterday to offer condolences. A taxi driver honked and yelled, "Saw it on the news!" A woman in a Pepco van, who declined to give her name, put her arms around Spencer and said: "My heart is broken. All I can do is pray for you."
Crysta's aunt Lakeisha Moore clutched a piece of white paper she retrieved yesterday from Crysta's desk at J.O. Wilson Elementary School, where she was in the first grade. In neat handwriting with a pencil, Crysta had written her name at the top of the page, then scribbled:
"What is a friendship! A friendship is a thing when you be nice to people and when you play with people, for example helpful."
Moore brought out another piece of Crysta's schoolwork that read: "Garrett Morgan a famous African American. Invented the traffic light."
