Duane Lyons was crossing a road in Laurel, Maryland, Sunday evening when he was hit and killed by a driver who left the scene. He was 38.
Lyons, a father of two teenage daughters, wasn’t far from home when he was hit on Laurel Bowie Road at about 9:20 p.m. He was so close that his family could hear the sirens from first responders. Little did they know that those sounds meant their lives were changed forever.
“My son died on the side of a road, and you didn’t even have the compassion to reach out and hold his hand and say I’m sorry,” Lyons' mother, Lisa Felton, said.
On Monday, his mother was surrounded by his father, siblings and other family members. In this time of grief, they are drawing close and clinging to memories of happier family gatherings.
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“He was a natural-born comedian. He loved his family. He loved life,” Felton said.
Now what was once mundane is held precious. Felton said the last time she spoke to her son, she asked him to go to Mother’s Day church service.
“If I’d just known that I was going to lose my son last night, I wouldn’t have cut my conversation with him so short,” she said.
Later that day, she received a phone call from an officer telling her that her son had died.
The family has taken measured comfort, knowing that a good Samaritan tended to Lyons immediately after he was hit.
“My son wasn’t by himself, that somebody was there. That he wasn't left on the side of the road, like a piece of trash or a dog, to die by himself,” she said.
Prince George’s County police are asking for the public's help to find the hit-and-run driver. They shared a picture of a dark gray Jaguar SUV with red circles indicating where the car would have damage from the impact.
“You’re putting yourself in more, deeper trouble than you would have if you would’ve stayed,” Felton said in a plea to the driver.
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