Hit-and-run suspect is illegal immigrant, had DUI

10:33 PM Mountain Standard Time on Monday, October 22, 2007

By Marissa Wingate / 3TV reporter



A memorial marks the spot where 5-year-old Annabelle Sandoval died Sunday.


She was riding in a truck with her father and her three siblings when police say 27-year-old Wilson Alba-Cano pulled out in front of the family near 7th Avenue and Roeser in Phoenix.


According to police, Alba-Cano, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested before for DUI, was drunk at the time of the hit-and-run.


"It is very heartbreaking," said Gay Cox.


Gay and Tony Cox watched the family's truck flip four times.


"The father was trying to hustle three kids off to the side so they wouldn't get hit by any oncoming cars," Gay said.


"I was just hoping that it was not someone under the truck because you could tell it was a human being just like crying out," said hit-and-run witness Angel Guzman.


Guzman ran to help after witnessing the hit-and-run.


Annabelle was pinned under the truck. At least two of the children had been ejected. A 3-year-old broke his leg.


Witnesses rolled the overturned truck off its side.


"(They) just flipped it back over so it would get off that little girl," Tony Cox said.


Police say Alba-Cano drove off after hitting the truck and soon crashed into a front yard before fleeing.


Witnesses reportedly followed Alba-Cano and held him until police arrived and arrested him. He's charged with manslaughter.


Investigators tell us the children were not wearing seatbelts.

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