Police are looking for the driver responsible for a hit-and-run in Queens that left a 17-year-old boy dead. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.

Laura Valle, the grandmother of Ovidio Jaramillo is holding on to her family and her faith right now, praying the driver who ran into the 17-year-old is held responsible.

"He was the most beautiful, best thing in the world. I love him. I adore him," Valle said through an interpreter. "I don't know how I can live now. I just don't."

William Jordon says he was sitting in his car at the intersections of Northern and Junction boulevards, where the speed limit is 25 mph, when the wreck happened.  

"This car shot by me, he had the green light, zooming like about 50 miles per hour. There was nothing out here but him. Next thing I hear is, 'thump,'" Jordon said. "You see that red truck there? He went up as high as the back of that truck there. At the speed that that guy hit him, he was DOA."

The time was just before 11 p.m. Tuesday. The witness says the driver of the black Toyota Camry applied the brakes after the collision and then drove off.

The victim's friends say that makes their loss worse.

"Don't you feel guilty or anything? Don't you want to stop, see if the person's OK?" said Luis Taveras, a friend of the victim.

Taveras grew up around the block from Jaramillo, about a half a mile from the scene, on a tight-knit block.
Neighbors are trying to comfort the family and each other.  

"Wow, God. I'm devastated," said neighbor Magreen Richards.

Taveras thought of the picture seen at left, taken years ago of a group of friends. He is in the white shirt. Jaramillo in green.

"It was just like a personality picture," Taveras said. "We were all about 9, 10. We all just grew up in the this block, me and my friends who live in this block, and then we just always used to see him. We used to always just hang out all the time."

"You just, you know, when you see a young man, 17 years old, that is just very polite, and you say, 'Dang, they do make them like this still.' He was one of those kids," Richards said.

Jaramillo was a junior at St. John's Prep, active in the glee club. The principal called him a wonderful young man, popular with teachers and students, who had a great future.

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.