Child riding bicycle killed in Polk County hit-and-run; $5K reward offered for information

POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is calling for the arrest of a driver who struck and killed a 9-year-old boy on Friday.

In a video statement recorded at the scene of the hit-and-run crash, Judd said that the boy, Andres Martinez, was riding a bicycle to his friend’s home when he was struck around 4:45 p.m. along Hutchins Road.

“He is struck by a red four-door pickup truck and killed. You see the child’s bicycle, which was torn in half, in the road. The red pickup truck then continued to flee eastbound on Hutchins Road,” Judd said. “It is beyond comprehension that anyone could hit another person with their vehicle and not stop to render aid, to help, to report what happened, but that’s even 1,000 times worse when it’s a child. A little 9-year-old boy. He was doing what little boys do after school. He was going to one of his friends to play, and now he’s dead, and there’s some deranged person that fled from this dying little boy who was thrown into the neighbor’s yard. That person fled and is hiding like the coward he is. We need your help.”

The sheriff’s office has shared surveillance images and video of the truck — described as a red 2015-18 four-door Chevrolet Silverado with a hitch and tinted windows — stating Heartland Crime Stoppers was offering a $5,000 cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of its driver.

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“Just tell us where the vehicle is and where the suspect is, or where the vehicle or the suspect is, and we’ll take it from there. We need that person in jail,” Judd said. “...You’ll stay totally anonymous. You’ll never have to testify in court. No one would know who you are and you will help us solve this current mystery of who is horrible enough to run over little 9-year-old Andres Martinez in the road in front of his house.”

Contact Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS (8477).

Note: This map depicts the general area of this crash and not necessarily its exact location.

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