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PUBLIC SAFETY
Police, family want closure on hit and run
Someone knows the person who was
driving the SUV that hit Lanzhen Pan.
She was crossing Hightower Trail at
the intersection with Roswell Road on
Sept. 11 when she was struck. Pan, 67,
later died of her injuries. The driver of
the SUV faces felony charges for flee
ing the scene.
The case remains unsolved.
Sandy Springs Police say they’d like
to talk to the passenger in that SUV,
who they believe is a woman. Po
lice think the passenger’s window was
rolled down at the time of the incident.
The passenger wouldn’t face any
charges, according to Sandy Springs
Police Detective Shelly Weed and Of
ficer Brandon Smith.
“They were just the passenger in the
vehicle,” Weed said. “We’re afraid they
aren’t coming forward for fear of crimi
nal prosecution.”
“They did absolutely nothing wrong
in the case,” Smith added. “They were
just the passenger.”
Pan was a Chinese immigrant who
came to the United States with her hus
band to help raise her grandchildren.
Pan’s daughter, Mandy Walker, said her
mother was walking home from the
grocery store.
When the SUV
struck Pan it stopped
for a moment. The
passenger screamed,
according to eyewit
ness reports.
“It was some
thing to the effect
of, ‘Oh my God, ”
Weed said, recount
ing details of the in
vestigation.
The SUV sped
west down High
tower Trail. Video
from a nearby Iron
Sky camera shows
the vehicle pull into
the northbound
left-hand turn lane
on Roswell Road as
the lane starts. Weed
thinks it’s a clue the driver was familiar
with the area.
Clues are scarce, the officers said.
Witnesses didn’t get a license plate
number. There was no physical evi
dence at the scene, no fragments of the
vehicle police investigators can trace
back to the owner. The SUV struck Pan
at a low speed. Pan fell and her head hit
the ground, resulting in the fatal injury.
Police officers sent Pan’s clothes and
jewelry to a lab for testing, hoping
there would be flecks of paint or other
evidence that would connect the dots
to a suspect. The lab didn’t find any
thing, the officers said.
The video cameras didn’t cap
ture the suspect’s SUV in great
detail because the accident hap
pened at night. The cameras
switched to night-vision record
ing. Weed said the officers aren’t
quite sure of the make and mod
el or the color of the SUV shown
in the video.
Police believe the passenger
remains the key to solving the
case.
“We really need that passen
ger to come forward to do the
right thing for the family,” Weed
said.
There’s a $5,000 reward for
information that results in the
arrest and conviction of the
driver.
Walker, Pan’s daughter, said
she has given up hope that the
she will ever have an answer.
“I think, at this point, it’s
pretty much between that per
son and God,” Walker said. “For me, it
is very disappointing, but I don’t know
what else I could do or anybody could
do to change the situation.”
Anyone who has information about
this case should call Detective Weed at
770-551-6939.
26 | JUNE 14 —JUNE 27, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
