Driver who killed firefighter in hit-and-run crash gets 10 years

A driver who killed a Chicago firefighter in a hit-and-run crash last year in the North Side Rogers Park neighborhood has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Simeon Barrientos, 23, pleaded guilty May 1 to one count of failure to report an accident involving death before Judge Thomas Byrne, according to Cook County court records.

About 7:30 p.m. on June 12, 2016, Lorenzo Douglas was outside his parked vehicle in the 6500 block of North Ashland when a northbound minivan moved into the southbound lanes and hit him, his vehicle and two other parked vehicles, authorities said at the time.

Douglas lived on the block where he was hit, and was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston.

After the crash, Douglas began to improve and was rehabilitating at Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines, Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said.

Douglas was a firefighter at Engine 103, a single-engine fire station near Madison and Laflin on the Near West Side, known for its firehouse dog Freckles.

But Douglas suffered from “some kind of relapse” at the medical center, Langford said. He was pronounced dead there at 11:05 a.m. on July 5, 2016. An autopsy the next day found he died from injuries suffered when he was struck, and his death was ruled an accident.

The driver, later identified as Barrientos, also a Rogers Park resident, ran away after the crash, police said. He was later arrested and charged.

Judge Byrne sentenced Barrientos to 10 years in prison on May 9, according to court records. He will receive credit for 296 days served in the Cook County Jail, and must serve one year of supervised release.

He was booked into the Stateville Correctional Center to begin serving his sentence Thursday, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.