Driver in stolen SUV kills grandmother in hit-and-run crash, police say

PHILADELPHIA — Police are searching for the driver of a stolen vehicle blamed for crashing into a parked car and killing a woman sitting inside it.

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Philadelphia police said the victim, a 78-year-old woman, was sitting in her vehicle when someone driving a stolen white Jeep Grand Cherokee hit her car on the driver’s side, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The stolen Jeep also hit five other parked vehicles before it drove away, police said.

“Looking into my sideview mirror, I could see in one mirror, a vehicle getting hit so fast and so hard with a door sliding out open, and in another rearview mirror, I saw a white Jeep just flying,” Tyrelle Butler, a witness, told WCAU.

The victim’s family identified her to KYW-TV as Julia Mae Abraham. Her family said Abraham had pulled over because her sister wanted to buy a lottery ticket. She was killed while waiting for her sister to come out of the store.

“She’s a beautiful woman,” Sylvia Abraham, the victim’s daughter, told KYW-TV.

No arrests have been made. Police recovered the Jeep, which police told WCAU had been stolen in King of Prussia on Wednesday morning.

“It’s so sad,” Abraham told WPVI. “Nothing is going to bring her back, but God will take care of her, trust me. She’s with God, trust me.”

More than 30 people have been killed in hit-and-run crashes in 2022 in Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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