Mpls. hit-and-run victim's family pleads for driver to step forward

Barbara Mahigel
Barbara Mahigel was killed in a hit-and-run incident 5 p.m. on Sunday at the intersection of Nicollet Ave. So. and 43rd St. in Minneapolis. Police and her family are asking anyone who has information to come forward.
Courtesy of the Mahigel family

Had Barbara Mahigel been the driver who hit a pedestrian Sunday at Nicollet Avenue South and 43rd Street in Minneapolis, she would have stopped immediately to help and begged God's forgiveness, her son said Wednesday.

Mahigel, though, was the pedestrian on Sunday. She died the next day, victim of a hit-and-run. As police continue to investigate, Mahigel's son sent out a public plea for information on what happened, as well as a direct plea to the person who hit his mother.

"I am begging for you to come forward and rectify your mistake," Mike Mahigel said in a statement released through Minneapolis police. "Please accept the chance to give my mother the respect she deserved and her family the closure it so desperately needs."

Barbara Mahigel was crossing at Nicollet Avenue South and 43rd Street at about 5 p.m. Sunday when she was struck. Police say the vehicle, described only as a dark sedan, continued northbound on Nicollet.

Speaking directly to the still-unknown driver, Mike Mahigel wrote that had their circumstances been reversed, his mother would have "hurried to your side and would have held your hand as you writhed in pain, and gasped for air while lying helpless on the cold pavement. She would have prayed that you survived without serious injury and that you and your family would remain whole.

"She would have accepted the consequences of her actions no matter what they were. She would have lived out her years with constant guilt and in constant grief, but she would have lived knowing that she did everything she could to save you and give closure to your family."

Minneapolis police urged anyone with information about the suspect or suspect vehicle to call 612-692-TIPS (8477) or send an anonymous text to 847411 (enter MPD, a space, and then the information).

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