Two New Jersey women were killed after being struck in a hit-and-run while walking home from a World Cup watch party on Saturday.
Horrific video shows the moment Mariana Elizabeth Valverde Beltran, 58, and Maria Isabel DeLosAngeles Salgado Ayala, 61, were hit walking across the intersection of of Park Avenue and North 7th Street in Newark, the New York Post reported.
ABC7NY obtained street surveillance footage of the moment the suspect, 26-year-old David J. Zapata-Vera blew through the intersection and struck the women. The outlet did not show any graphic footage of the moment of impact.
One witness to the tragedy alleged that Zapata-Vera accelerated as he sped through the traffic light that was in the process of changing.
“I don’t know if he was drunk, but anyway, he put the gas and that’s what happens,” Manuel Candelaria told the outlet.
The women were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were ultimately pronounced dead, according to the report.
Relatives of the women said they are devastated and traumatized by their violent deaths.
“You have to live with this for the rest of your life. I hope the person is found but also for that person it’s something you have to live with for the rest of your life, it’s on your conscience,” Beltran’s cousin, Jeffrey Chacon, told the local news outlet.
“My dad is managing his emotions with trying to contact everyone in Ecuador, her sisters, her son,” he added.
Zapata-Vera turned himself in to police on Tuesday, three days after the fatal hit-and-run.
He is facing charges for two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, two counts of second-degree leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death, and two counts of third-degree endangering an injured victim, according to the report.
He is being held without bond at the Essex County jail, according to the report.