A Fort Worth family is pushing for something positive to come from their tragedy. Eight-year-old Aja Hill was killed in a hit-and-run collision three weeks ago while riding a scooter outside her grandparents' house on Barron Lane.
Thursday night, family and neighbors gathered for a community meeting with city leaders and police to ask for more safety measures on the street, such as speed bumps.
The city already put in new stop signs right after the tragedy happened. But the family won't stop until they do everything they can to protect other children.
The girl's grandfather, Bobbie Lewis Sr., a crossing guard for Atwood McDonald Elementary, makes a living out of keeping children safe in the street.
The laughter he hears in the crosswalk every day doesn't sound the same with his favorite student gone.
"I'm still upbeat, but I was more upbeat because I always could see her coming down here, running, 'Grandpa, grandpa! What are we going to do today?'" Lewis said.
"It's like an empty feeling on the inside because you expect to see her every day," said Aja's uncle, Bobby Lewis Jr.
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But Aja's family is looking for purpose.
"We can't walk around with our heads down for the rest of our lives," Bobby Lewis Jr. said. "But we can do something for this neighborhood to bounce back from this tragedy."
They're calling for more safety measures, like speed bumps, on Barron Lane, which is often used as a cut-through for Interstate 30.
Surveillance video caught a person of interest in Aja's fatal hit-and-run speeding down the street. Police have questioned, but not arrested, the driver.
"That there is part of the closure process," Bobby Lewis Jr. said.
While they wait for that justice, the family is remembering the bright young girl who danced in church and lit up their lives.
"Her spirit has really rubbed off on us," Bobby Lewis Jr. said.
Aja's grandpa won't see her coming down the road again, but he can do even more to protect the children left behind.
"To keep our whole community safe," he said.
His son added, "I know my niece is looking down on us, and she's saying good job, good job. We got stop signs, we got speed bumps coming. I know they're coming. And I get to see my friends play in the streets with no worries."
City leaders said Thursday night that speed bumps are no longer considered the most effective means of slowing traffic, and they presented other options.
Meanwhile, Fort Worth police traffic investigators say they're doing everything they can to solve this case and are treating it like Aja were their own child.
They say they fully processed the car seen in the surveillance video and the driver is still not ruled out as a person of interest.
