Mo-ped driver dies after Fayetteville hit-and-run

A 31-year-old Fayetteville man whose mo-ped was hit and dragged by a car late Thursday died of his injuries, state troopers said.

David Lee Cruz II was driving east on Camden Road around 9:30 p.m. when a car also going east struck him, troopers said. Cruz and his mo-ped were stuck underneath the car and dragged several hundred feet, witnesses told troopers. 

Cruz died Friday morning at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

Troopers said the car's driver put on its flashers and had to know something had been hit, but didn't stop.

Troopers are looking for a silver or white passenger car with extensive front-end damage.

"People many times panic. It could be anything. Maybe they don't have their driver's license, just in fact got scared and drove off," North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. Derek Mobley said. 

Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call the state Highway Patrol at 910-486-1334.

Cruz's girlfriend, April Carleton, said he was driving on Camden Road to give his father an insulin shot.  She said he often expressed how he didn’t like driving his mo-ped on the busy two-lane route “because people will run you off the road.”

She described her long-time boyfriend as a loving father of their 7-year-old daughter, Amber. 

"He would do anything in the world for his daughter," Carleton said. 

Cruz's uncle, Jonathan Prechtl, just hopes the driver is caught. 

"Because God said love everyone, even your enemy, but I hope they catch them and punish them to the fullest extent of the law. That's what they deserve," he said.