ORANGE, Conn. (WTNH) – The Orange Police Department is still searching for the driver of a stolen BMW who left the scene of a crash that killed a 14-year-old and injured a tractor-trailer driver.
Police said the teen died when he was ejected from the passenger seat of a stolen BMW at the intersection of Derby Avenue and Orange Center Road. Police identified that passenger as Jasser Ciprian of Waterbury.
Waterbury school leaders told News 8 that Ciprian was a student at the Enlightenment School.
At the busy intersection of Derby Avenue and Orange Center Road, a memorial includes balloons, candles and flowers.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Kathleen Conroy-Cass, who owns St. Anthony’s Book & Gift Shop, the religious store near the scene in Orange. “I mean, you never want to see a child die under any circumstances.”
Police said around 4 a.m. on Oct. 30, the BMW collided with a tractor-trailer, which knocked down a traffic light and power to the area.
Orange Police Assistant Chief Max Martins said the truck was on Derby Avenue. The driver was traveling the speed limit and had a green traffic signal. The BMW was on Orange Center Road and had been stolen 12 minutes earlier.
“It appears the vehicle was stolen from a driveway of a residence in Milford, in close proximately to the town line here on the southern part of the area,” Martins said.
Martins said the driver of the BMW took off in a sedan.
“There was a white, four-door vehicle that was in the area when the actual theft occurred,” Martins said. “And also a white, four-door vehicle stops immediately after the collision and, presumably, picks up the operator of the black BMW,” he said.
Conroy-Cass says all she can do now is pray for everyone involved.
“I feel for [Ciprian’s] family, his parents,” Conroy-Cass said. “I feel bad for the truck driver, his family.”
Police said the truck driver was treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the Orange Police Department.