SAN ANTONIO – The family of a man who died earlier this month as the result of a hit-and-run crash on San Antonio’s West Side is dealing with its second tragedy in three months.
Samuel Arellano died three days after the Aug. 30 crash on Historic Old U. S. Highway 90 near South San Joaquin Street.
At the time Arellano rode his bicycle across the road, San Antonio police said he was hit by a vehicle that failed to stop.
Crime Stoppers released a photo Tuesday of that vehicle, a pickup, in hopes of tracking down the driver.
“He was the only father I’ve ever had,” John Alderete said of Arellano on Wednesday morning. “He was a good-hearted man, but he was also a hard man, like, old school. He was real old school.”
Although Arellano was, technically, his stepfather, Aldrete said he helped raise him.
Aldrete said the fact that the driver who hit him never stopped is especially difficult to accept.
“Didn’t even consider what he was doing,” Alderete said. “Really? You couldn’t have stopped or at least called the ambulance?”
Aldrete’s entire family, in fact, is reeling from Arellano’s loss.
Just two months before the Aug. 30 deadly crash, Alderete’s brother, Roy, was killed in another crash that also was covered by KSAT 12 News.
Police said at the time that Roy Aldrete was an innocent bystander. He was hit by a car that went out of control during a rolling gun battle, authorities said.
“The car veered off and (Roy Alderete) was sitting in a ditch, minding his business,” Aldrete said.
Both that June 18 crash and the one that killed Arellano are the subjects of open police investigations.
Anyone with information on either case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (210) 224-STOP (7867).
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