Car hits four kids in median

A 27-year-old Las Vegas driver is in custody today for allegedly striking and injuring four children as they attempted to cross West Charleston Boulevard near Cimarron Boulevard.

John Giraldo was arrested at his home about a half hour after Monday's 10:47 a.m. bloody accident scene. He remained in the Clark County Detention Center this morning, charged with three counts of felony driving under the influence, and three counts of leaving the scene of an injury accident.

Daisy Guzman, 10, and Nicole Thompson, 11, were listed in fair and stable condition this morning at University Medical Center. Joshua Thompson, 7, and Cristina Guzman, 14, were treated and released after the accident. A fifth child who had been holding the leash of his dog at the time escaped physical injury.

Police and witnesses said Giraldo was westbound along Charleston in the left travel lane when he drove up onto the median and struck four of the five children, knocking at least one temporarily unconscious.

Sandra Cornelius of Las Vegas, who was eastbound along Charleston at the time, said Giraldo never stopped his car, the front end of which was dented from striking the children.

Cornelius said she let her passenger, Charlise Thrower, out of the car to aid the bleeding children, pulled a U-turn and took off in pursuit of the hit-and-run driver.

"I followed him up Charleston to Rampart, he made a right and went to Summerlin (Parkway)," Cornelius said. "I don't understand why he wouldn't stop. I followed him because I wanted to get his license plate number. He had a dent in his car and a flat tire, and still he wouldn't stop."

Cornelius did her best to keep up with the driver, she said. "I didn't want him to get away. I pulled up right next to him to see what he looked like. He looked like he'd just got off work and had a bad day, like he was upset. It doesn't matter how upset you are. You just don't do something like this."

Police were able to track Giraldo by his license plate number to his home where the arrest was made.

Thrower, meanwhile, comforted the injured and terrified children until medical help arrived.

"The one little girl who was unconscious, I asked her, 'Can you hear me?'" Thrower said. "She woke up and started crying and said, 'I want to go home.'"

The young boy who escaped injury with his dog was able to help authorities contact at least one of the children's parents, authorities said.

Thrower and Cornelius were devastated after the crash.

"It didn't look like (Giraldo) was trying to miss them," Thrower said. "He had room to miss them."

archive