Driver charged in Center City hit-and-run that killed a mother and injured one of her children
A 37-year-old woman died and her 8-year-old daughter suffered internal injuries and head trauma following the hit-and-run near City Hall.
A West Philadelphia man has been charged in the Center City hit-and-run accident Tuesday night that left a 38-year-old mother dead and injured one of her three daughters, Philadelphia police said.
Dominique Murphy, 37, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle, accident involving death/injury, simple assault, and related reckless driving charges in the accident that occurred outside the Trader Joe’s at 13th and Arch Streets, police said Thursday.
Police said the hit-and-run accident occurred just past 10 p.m. Tuesday, when Murphy was allegedly driving a dark-gray Jeep with its lights off, speeding the the wrong way down the 1400 block of John F. Kennedy Boulevard. The driver then hit the woman, who was walking with her children — ages 8, 10, and 11 — on the 1300 block of Arch Street, near City Hall.
The children were calling for their mother as emergency services worked on her, police said.
“One witness said it looked like the mother tried to push at least one or some of her children out of the way, but it appears from evidence on the scene that two of the children were knocked out of their footwear,” Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters.
Police confirmed that the woman was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where the woman was pronounced dead on Wednesday afternoon, following surgery.
Two of her daughters — the 10- and 11-year-olds — were not struck by the vehicle and did not suffer injuries and are under the care of social workers, police said. The 8-year-old suffered internal injuries and head trauma, and was in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on Wednesday. An update on her condition was not immediately available Thursday.
In 2022, hit-and-run deaths reached a record in Philadelphia, accounting for one in four traffic fatalities in the city.
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