Sharday McCoy

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Family struggles with hit-and-run death in Hawthorne

Sharday McCoy, who worked to get her younger brother out of foster care, died at the hands of a hit-and-run driver on Thursday night.

By Larry Altman
Daily Breeze

Sharday McCoy wanted to be a dancer, but opted for cosmetology school so she could work to rescue her younger brother from the foster care system.

Friends said 15-year-old Deaundre Howard was the most important person in her life.

The teenage boy stood quietly Friday, watching family members and friends cry, hug and call for justice at a busy Hawthorne intersection where a motorist fatally struck his 18-year-old sister and drove away.

"She wanted to take care of her brother," said Chandra Davison, a fellow cosmetology student at Marinello School of Beauty in Inglewood. "She wanted to be his role model. She didn't smoke a cigarette. She didn't drink. She was a good girl."

Police said they had little to go on to find the responsible motorist. All they know is he or she was most likely driving a blue compact truck, possibly a Ford Ranger.

"We expect to have some moderate damage to the front end," Hawthorne police Lt. Mike Ishii said. "We are hoping somebody who saw the accident will come forward."

McCoy and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Cris Washington, were struck at 8:35 p.m. Thursday as they crossed Hawthorne Boulevard at 134th Street. They and McCoy's foster sister, Ronisha Parker, 14, were in a crosswalk.

A vehicle headed south braked, but hit the pair. Parker was unhurt.

"We believe the car was speeding and, as far as the information we have now, the suspect did not exit the car and continued driving," Ishii said.

The Inglewood High School graduate and Washington were taken to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance, where McCoy died at 11:15 p.m.

"Her face was so swollen you couldn't even see who she was," said McCoy's grieving mother, Sheila Austin. "You know how pretty she was at her graduation?"

Washington was treated and released and returned to the hit-and-run scene Friday.

"What I remember is that we were crossing the street right here, and the car came by, and I was trying to pull her out of the street, and pull myself as well, and telling her sister to try and stay back," Washington told reporters at the scene.

McCoy, who turned 18 on Sept. 18, also lived in foster care, but in a different home than her brother. When she graduated from Inglewood, she enrolled at the Marinello School.

McCoy wanted to make enough money so she and her brother could live together.

Deaundre said little Friday. Other family members, including McCoy's mother, consoled one another next to a makeshift memorial of flowers and candles.

"I want to tell the person to please come forward," said McCoy's aunt, Sabrina Dubose. "He killed our innocent little girl. If they have any kind of decency or any kind of heart, they'll come forward."

Fellow Marinello students said McCoy always had a smile on her face, enjoyed her caramel Starbucks Frappuccinos and preferred hip-hop dancing to cosmetology. She especially enjoyed R. Kelly's "Slow Wind."

Her friends and family members struggled with the lack of feeling shown by the driver of the car that hit McCoy.

"Life is worth more than leaving her here like a dog," Davison said.

Dubose and Davison said they hope somebody can help the family cope with McCoy's death by providing police the information to find the driver.

"We can't bring her back, but we want justice," Dubose said.