Woman Charged In Hit-And-Run Death

Yokairi Diaz, of 5501-101 Reunion Pointe in Raleigh, is charged with driving while intoxicated and felony hit-and-run and was being held in the Wake County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

Investigators said a witness provided a description of the car. Officers later located the car at a nearby apartment complex while responding to another call, police said.

Neil Anderson was was celebrating his 23rd birthday with friends and left a bar on Capital Boulevard near Durant Road at about 3 a.m., police said. As he crossed Capital, he was hit by a car and killed, and the driver never stopped, police said.

Anderson already had cheated death once in his life.

He was riding in an SUV on eastbound Interstate 40 in January 2005 when two men he and his friends had argued with earlier pulled up in the next lane and fired a shotgun into the vehicle. Anderson was struck in the face and spent months recovering from his wounds.

Two Onslow County men were convicted in the case.

"He was back on his feet and everything was going so good for him, and then this happens. It just doesn't seem fair," Anderson's friend Ali Bunn said as she fought back tears. "If you survive death once, you shouldn't have to go through it again."

Anderson was an outgoing person who approached life with a smile and deserved a second chance at life, his family and friends said.

"He was a great man, best brother I ever had. I'm going to miss him a lot," said Anderson's brother, Michael Hanna.

Hanna was at his brother's birthday party earlier in the evening and was on his way back to pick him up when he saw the flashing lights of the police cars and ambulance.

Family and friends gathered in groups throughout the day at Anderson's mother's home in Youngsville and at his home in Wake Forest, trying to come to grips with his death.

"It's just a big tragedy to lose someone in this kind of way, especially for someone to drive away," family friend Louisa Hancock said.