My daughter saw fatality. Why won’t police explain what happened?

Re “Man hit, killed on R Street ID’ed” (Page 2A, May 23): On May 12th my daughter attended the prom. Unfortunately, the night would not end as well as it started.

On the way home from hanging out with friends at Denny’s in Merced, they witnessed the most horrific thing – a person get hit by a car and being flipped into the air and over the car. They watched the car drive off.

It was 2 a.m. they were the only people in the area and stopped to help the person. They called 911. My daughter and her boyfriend had to watch and listen to this person’s life leave his body. They absorbed every traumatic second and became very emotional during this ordeal.

So when the Sun-Star finally posted the story, reporting that the driver said he had a justifiable reason for leaving Joe Lang for dead, it upset me. What upset me more was the lack of transparency by the Merced police department. They refused to say the justifiable reason and they also refused to the release the driver’s name.

I really hope transparency in this issue comes. Joe Lang and his family deserve it. My daughter and her boyfriend deserve it also. I will never forget my daughter saying through tears, “Daddy, all he was doing was walking across the street.”

This story was originally published May 25, 2018 at 2:02 PM with the headline "My daughter saw fatality. Why won’t police explain what happened?."