Houston crime: Family of northside hit & run victim calls on driver to surrender
HOUSTON - Everywhere in the Northside neighborhood he called home, they called him "P-Flow", but to the Mother who now grieves, he will always be her firstborn, Raymond.
"My oldest son was left there in the street to die alone, and I'm hoping he died instantly. I hope he was not laying there suffering," said Christine Martinez.
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Raymond Martinez, father of three, left this world suddenly and violently one week ago, struck down as revealed in surveillance video, by a speeding driver who chose to "hit-and-run" from the deadly impact at Bauman and Parker Road.
"You see the vehicle strike him and then drag him halfway through the street, and leave him there for dead, as if he were an animal," said Daniel Ortega, Martinez's brother.
Daniel says he'd talked to the 38-year-old local rapper less than an hour before and wants whoever took his life to reckon with a family's loss.
"Life is life and life goes on. But we do want justice, and someone knows something, and help me and my family find this person. Someone had to talk about this. Someone had to go home and freak out. As of right now, y'all running, and y'all scared, and y'all think y'all are in the dark. But when that light comes out, it's going to come out and you are going to wish you came forward," said Ortega.
Relieved in the knowledge that the casket at Raymond's funeral can remain open, Christine Martinez issued her own plea, borne of the deepest love.
"At the end of the day, I'm a mom asking for help. I will be a mom to my children, whether they are on this Earth or not, until the day I die," said Christine.
Raymond Martinez will be laid to rest following services on February 13.