Mother Searches for Hit-And-Run Driver Who Injured Son

DURHAM, N.C. — A Durham County mother is looking for help in finding a hit-and-run driver who left her 12-year-old son critically injured last July.

After eight months and no leads, Shirley Long said her family can’t move on until they find out who was behind the wheel when her son Larry was hit as he rode his bike.

“We need healing from this,” Long said. “This has devastated our lives tremendously.”

Larry's right arm is paralyzed. The now 13-year-old just had knee surgery -- his sixth surgery after being hit while riding his bicycle down Guess Road.

“It was an accident, but she ran,” Larry said. “That was the whole bad part about it.”

Shirley Long had fliers made and is now placing them in mailboxes near where the accident happened on July 15, looking for the woman she said she saw hit her son.

Early that morning, Shirley, Larry, and Larry's friend were all riding their bikes on a sidewalk alongside the road, Shirley said. When the sidewalk came to an end, the three were riding up to another sidewalk when Shirley said she saw a light gray sedan swerving, and a middle-aged woman behind the wheel.

“Once she passed by me, brushed by me, I hear the thump, and that was my son,” she said.

Shirley said her son will have to undergo more surgeries soon. She said she imagines confronting the woman who she said caused so much pain for her son.

“After you hit him, and went home, what did you do?” Shirley Long said to the unknown driver. “How could sit there and not come forth? I want you to know you didn't give me a chance to even say I forgive you, if it was an accident.”

Anyone who might have information that could assist investigators is asked to call the North Carolina Highway Patrol at (919) 715-8683.