Hit and run of 9-year-old caught on tape

PARKSIDE - February 18, 2012

Philadelphia police released the hard to watch surveillance video Saturday of a car speeding down Merion Avenue in West Philadelphia Tuesday evening.

Aijahanae waited for a car to pass, but she misjudged the next one and jumped off her bike to try to escape the oncoming car.

Instead of getting back on the sidewalk, police say she panicked and ran across the street.

"The car was coming fast...and they came and hit me and I fell over there by the trash can," Aijahanae told Action News earlier in the week.

As Aijahanae was thrown several feet, the dark colored vehicle, possibly a Honda, which already had front end damage, took off.

"That's not right, that's a human being, why would you just leave her there," Aijahanae's sister Laniya Johnson said.

Aijahanae's sister ran to help her.

Good Samaritan Angela Norman, who did stop, chased after the car after it went around her.

She got a partial Pennsylvania license plate of "HTL".

"Thank God there are some loyal people out here who have hearts...I really want to thank that lady," Aijahanae's mother Petrina Newman said.

The third grader is doing well despite the horrific hit and run.

"I'm just so happy that my child is alive," Newman said.

Witnesses say the hit and run driver was a woman wearing a purple scarf.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

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