Man charged with fatal Summit hit-and-run now faces lawsuit

A Northwest Side man already charged with driving away after fatally striking a 98-year-old man with his SUV near a southwest suburban gas station now faces a lawsuit from the elderly man’s family.

Manuela Yanique filed the suit Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of her father Esteban Barraza, who died July 14 of injuries he suffered in the May 10 crash near the Citgo at 7455 W. Archer Ave in Summit, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Surveillance footage showed 51-year-old Richard Lulik leaving the scene in his Ford Explorer after the man was hit, Summit police allege. Lulik turned himself in last week and was charged with a felony count of failure to stop after an accident involving injury or death, police said.

Lulik, of the 4700 block of North Knox in Chicago, was released from the Cook County Jail Monday after posting 10 percent of a $500,000 bond, court records show. He is due in court again Aug. 10.

Barraza, who lived down the street from the gas station where he was hit, is survived by two sons and four daughters. The wrongful death suit is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.