Driver ditches car and flees after striking, killing man on mini-bike

Police are searching for a driver who hit and killed a man riding his mini-bike on Detroit's west side, then ditched the car and ran.

"I couldn't even sleep all night because I could picture him, you know, laying there," said Lynette.

She says she witnessed the horrific end to this year's Fourth of July celebration.

"After I looked and seen that he had no pulse or nothing, I just covered him up," she said.

Detroit police say just before 11 p.m. Wednesday, a man was driving a 2014 silver Dodge Charger eastbound down Tireman and just before reaching Stahelin Street, he smashed into a 29-year-old man riding a mini-bike.

"I thought the car was on fire. The car was totaled. I mean the front end - the bike was under it," Lynette said.

Neighbors outside were setting off fireworks but still heard the impact. Witnesses say the man on the mini-bike had been knocked out of his flip flops.

"I just ran because I didn't want nobody to put him on Facebook. So I ran and got a blanket and covered him up," Lynette said.

Police are unsure where the man on the mini-bike had been riding, but believe he was also going eastbound on the same street.

"However it happened, he ended up right there on the ground in the middle of the street. His head was cracked open," Lynette said.

Detroit police took the smashed car but that driver was long gone. After speaking with witnesses, police can only describe the driver as a black man. Witnesses say he ran south on Stahelin.

Police say Thursday the silver car had not been stolen and had a temporary license plate in the back window, bringing them a step closer to finding that driver as that 29-year-old man he killed has not yet been identified.