Arlington police are investigating a hit-and-run that killed a young woman Friday night. While the Tarrant County medical examiner hasn’t released her identity, the parents of 20-year-old Kelly Walters are positive it’s their daughter.
“I believe the officers knocked on the door at 1:45 a.m.,” said Ginna Walters, Kelly’s mother. “They let us know what had happened. They showed us photos of her cell phone and of a ring that she had that she always wore.”
Walters was a junior at the University of Texas-Arlington, studying both psychology and political science. Her parents believe she was on her way home from a relaxing walk when she was hit and killed in the crosswalk at the intersection of Green Oaks Boulevard and Burney Road.
They described their daughter as driven and focused with a passion for politics. She was a member of the Arlington Republicans group and the Tarrant County Young Republicans, among other organizations.
Her parents said a letter Kelly Walters wrote to President Bill Clinton while she was in the first grade at Sherrod Elementary School in Arlington shows how serious she was about politics even as a young child.
“They took a leader away from this country,” said her father, Gary Brizendine.
She would go on to be a page in Washington, D.C., as a junior in high school. And she was set to leave for Morocco this week to continue studying Arabic. Her parents said she was also interested in women’s rights and human rights.
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“They left a hole in my heart, a hole in my family’s heart, but they left a hole in some part of the world that she was going to make better,” said Ginna Walters.
The Arlington Republicans will remember Kelly Walters at their meeting Thursday.
Police believe the car they are looking for is a dark-color, older model SUV that might also have damage to the front end.
NBC 5's Johnny Archer contributed to this report.
