Man killed in hit-and-run crash while trying to defend woman

‘It is injustice because he took a life’, says godmother

A 30-year-old man was subject to a hit-and-run in Detroit earlier this month after he allegedly attempted to defend a woman from being harrased outside a nightclub.

The incident occurred on 12 July when Lamar Waller stood up for a woman who was allegedly being harassed by a man outside an unnamed nightclub where he worked as security, his family told Fox2 Detroit on Wednesday.

Waller argued with the man, who has not been found by poilice or identified since the incident, in the parking lot of the club.

“(He went up to the man) To say, ‘Hey, let you and I handle it.’ More of something whether they had to talk it out, fight it out, whatever it is, it will be man to man versus the young lady that was the target of the guy that was involved in this,” said his godmother Saba Gebrai to the news outlet.

Shortly after, Waller was followed by the man in an SUV to a CVS drugstore near the Southfield Freeway in south Detroit, where he exited his car about 1.20am.

His family said the suspect acted like he was leaving the scene after slowing down in his vehicle before pulling behind Waller and running him over before fleeing the scene.

Waller was taken to Sinai-Grace Hospital with critical injuries and was brain dead, his family said. On Monay, his wife reportedly decided to take the 30-year-old off life support a week after the hit-and-run incident.

“She lost her husband and the father of her children,” said Ms Gebrai of Waller’s wife. “She had to go home and tell her children that their father will never be back again”.

Jamal Waller’s sister Cassandra McLawrence talking to Fox2 (Fox2 Detroit)

So far, police have not located the suspect – who was seen in surveillance video driving through the parking lot in a black Dodge Durango SUV with black rims, which police said was a newer model, according to ClickOnDetroit.

The suspect, who was with a woman, has been described as being of medium build with short hair and in his 20s to 30s. He was wearing a white t-shirt with red and orange shorts.

“I think we won’t have real closure until that happens, until he (the suspect, is arrested). It is injustice because he took a life”, said Ms Gebrai to Fox2.

Waller’s sister Cassandra McLawrence added: “This guy is dangerous. He was dangerous to my brother, and he’d be dangerous to other people and what he did is very sick, and he needs to be, something needs to be done about what he did.”