A 15-year-old Richards High School freshman was killed in a hit-and-run crash Monday morning in southwest suburban Chicago Ridge, less than a block from the school.
Amira Nairat was walking to school in the 10700 block of South Central Avenue when a 2007 Volkswagen Beetle struck her, Chicago Ridge police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
She was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she died at 8:11 a.m., authorities said. An autopsy Tuesday did not rule on the cause and manner of her death pending further investigation.
“Amira was a quiet but kind student,” her Principal Michael Jacobson said in a statement. “The entire Bulldog community will feel this loss deeply.”
Before she was struck, Chicago Ridge officers were looking for a vehicle wanted in connection with multiple hit-and-run crashes a short time earlier in Oak Lawn, police said.
An officer spotted the Beetle heading south on Central Avenue through the intersection with 107th Street, police said. The officer made a U-turn to follow the Beetle and saw it hit Nairat.
The officer stopped to help Nairat while the Beetle drove off, authorities said.
Another officer eventually pulled the Beetle over on Central, several blocks south of the scene, police said. The driver, a 25-year-old Oak Lawn man, was taken into custody.
Oak Lawn police said the car was wanted in connection with a hit-and-run crash at 7:36 a.m. at 95th Street and Central. It had rear-ended another vehicle that was stuck in traffic, forcing it into a third vehicle.
The Beetle kept going south on Central before crossing into the oncoming traffic and sideswiping a northbound vehicle near 97th Street, authorities said. No injuries were reported in any of the Oak Lawn crashes.
The fatal crash remains under investigation by Chicago Ridge police, with the assistance of the Illinois State Police Accident Reconstruction investigators.
