POLICE SEEK HIT-RUN KILLER

By Dara Mormile & Charles Rogers

City Councilman Charles Barron holds photo of eight-year-old Elijah Thomas as he consoles the victim's distraught mother, Sharon, at news conference last Friday afternoon in front of her East 56th Street home. Dara Mormile Detectives from the NYPD's Accident Investigation Squad have joined with officials from the 69th Precinct and other agencies in the search for the driver of a late model SUV that struck and killed an eight-year-old boy late on Wednesday, January 21 and then drove away.

The victim, Elijah Thomas, was walking with his mother, Sharon, and his sister as they crossed East 95th Street near Seaview Avenue when he was struck by what the boy's mother said she thought was a light colored Cadillac that appeared to have been speeding. After the youngster was hit, the car stopped for a moment, according to police, and then continued onto Seaview Avenue and headed east. Neither the victim's mother nor his sister was injured. One published source said witnesses told them the trio was crossing East 95th Street shortly after midnight after having visited friends for a late dinner.

Although Mrs. Thomas said she still had hold of the youngster's hand when the car struck him, witnesses told reporters that he had let go when the vehicle hit him, dragging his body for a short distance down the southbound street.

Calls immediately went out to emergency services and patrol officers from the local precinct tended to the boy. They said it appeared that the child had severe head trauma at that time. City Emergency Medical Service paramedics arrived with the police and took the victim and his mother to Brookdale Hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead by an emergency room physician.

Police, meanwhile, cordoned off the area and a crime scene was established. Captain Milt Marmara, commanding officer of the local precinct, issued orders directing details of the death be communicated to citywide precincts and to the public.

After details of the crime were released, City Councilman Charles Barron held a press conference last Friday in front of the family's home on East 59th Street. Clutching her son's photo, Thomas contradicted the previous reports, stating that her son never ran into the street.

"My son was a smart boy in a gifted program in school," she said. "He wanted to be a policeman when he grew up."

Barron told reporters he, along with the family, is demanding justice in seeing that "the perpetrator of this most heinous crime is apprehended."

Anyone who has information on the case is asked to call the Detective Squad at (718) 257-6215 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls are kept strictly confidential.