The suspect in the hit-and-run death of a 2-year-old boy left the country earlier this week, the spokesman for the DeKalb County Police Department said Friday.
Capt. S.R. Fore made that revelation less than 24 hours after police identified 57-year-old Concepcion Cruz as the suspect in the April 5 incident and announced that he would placed on the no-fly list.
Cruz, Fore said, boarded a flight Tuesday from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to his native El Salvador.
DeKalb police are working with federal authorities and El Salvador’s government to “begin the process of locating and extraditing Cruz,” he said.
Caleb Lindsay, 2, and his 4-year-old sister, Meyaria, were standing at the entrance of a Tucker Walmart on Saturday afternoon with their mother waiting to cross the road when they were struck by a white pickup truck, police said. They were taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, where Caleb died. Their mother, Vashti Lindsay of Tucker, was not injured.
A witness told investigators that the hit-and-run driver drove up on the curb and struck the children, stopped a few feet away, threw a beer bottle out of the window and left the scene, according to the incident report.
Cruz’s truck was found in Gwinnett County on Wednesday, DeKalb Police Chief Cedric Alexander said Thursday.
Cruz visits the metro Atlanta area frequently and is thought to have family here, he said. He travels back and forth to El Salvador.
His family saw him recently before “he went ghost on us,” according to the chief.
Warrants have been issued for Cruz’s arrest on two counts of felony hit-and-run.
— Staff writer Angel K. Brooks contributed to this report.
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