A retired Philadelphia police officer is demanding justice after her son was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the city’s Cobbs Creek neighborhood, leaving him brain-dead.
“My son was a delicate soul,” Angela McDonald advised NBC10 on Friday. “He was a really humble particular person. He was an introvert. He cherished his household and he cherished his mom.”
Angela McDonald’s son, 32-year-old Mark McDonald, was strolling on 58th and Delancey streets on Thursday round 3 a.m. when he was struck by a dark-colored Jeep Cherokee that fled the scene. NBC10 obtained video showing the crash which police say knocked McDonald out of his sneakers.
Angela McDonald advised NBC10 she discovered concerning the hit-and-run hours later.
“I don’t recognize the truth that any person hit and left him on the highway like he was roadkill or an animal,” she mentioned. “That was simply very disheartening for me. They took one thing away from our household.”
McDonald mentioned as of Friday, her son is neurologically useless.
“There isn’t any chance of him getting out of this,” she mentioned. “Mainly, that is it. We needed to decide as a household how we wish to deal with this. And as his mom, I really feel like I’ve given my son every little thing I can provide him on this life. And I’m going to, we determined as a household, to let him go.”
Police mentioned they recovered a weapon that belonged to Mark McDonald on the scene of the crash. Angela McDonald mentioned she desires the general public to know her son was a loving father who labored on the Kimmel Middle and was legally allowed to hold the weapon.
“He had a allow to hold that gun,” she mentioned. “He had a registered allow and license. He labored at night time so he carried the gun. He was on his method house from work. He wasn’t out right here doing something he had no enterprise doing. He was the sufferer.”
There have been 4 reported hit-and-run crashes in Philadelphia in July 2025, in response to police information. Outdoors the Penn Presbyterian Medical Middle the place Mark McDonald stays, his household is demanding solutions, in addition to justice.
“I really feel just like the laws positively must match the crime,” Larhonda Muslim, McDonald’s aunt, advised NBC10. “The sentence is so light-weight in the case of conditions like this.”
As for the particular person behind the wheel, McDonald’s father had a message for them.
“You took my solely son from me,” he mentioned. “I don’t wish to discuss to the particular person. I simply wish to see themselves flip themselves in. You do flawed, it’s important to get it proper.”
If in case you have any info on the hit-and-run, please name the Philadelphia Police Crash Investigation Division at 215-685-3181.
