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Police are offering a $50,000 reward for information in a hit-and-run crash that left a grandfather dead in Valley Village earlier this week.
Gennady Bolotsky is seen in an undated photo provided by his family.
Gennady Bolotsky is seen in an undated photo provided by his family.
Gennady Bolotsky, of Valley Village, died after being run over about 5:35 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Magnolia Boulevard and Wilkinson Avenue. Bolotsky’s granddaughter told KTLA he was a Holocaust survivor who had just celebrated his 91st birthday earlier this month. The driver was heading east on Magnolia when he or she crashed into a pedestrian who was walking north on Wilkinson inside a marked crosswalk, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The motorist then drove away from the scene without rendering aid.
A white pickup with a camper shell is seen as it runs over an elderly man in a Valley Village crosswalk on June 17, 2019, in a still from surveillance video provided by the victim’s family.
A white pickup with a camper shell is seen as it runs over an elderly man in a Valley Village crosswalk on June 17, 2019, in a still from surveillance video provided by the victim’s family.
Graphic surveillance video provided by Bolotsky’s family shows a pickup plow into the elderly man in the crosswalk. The truck then pauses momentarily before proceeding to drive over Bolotsky’s body as it flees the scene. Another man crossing the street simultaneously at Magnolia witnessed the entire thing but similarly failed to stop and render aid, the footage shows. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene and transported the victim to a hospital, where he later died, police said. The vehicle involved was described as a white pickup truck with a white camper shell and a cargo carrier on the back. The victim’s granddaughter, Adriana Bolotsky, described him as being “silly” and “vivacious.” He was on his routine morning walk with his dog and was close to returning home when he was struck, she said. “The void never will be filled,” Adriana Bolotsky said. She added that Bolotsky had escaped Nazi occupation and fled communist Russia to come to the U.S. “to be free.” She urged the person involved in the crash to turn themselves in. “I get you’re probably scared, but be a human, be a good person and come forward,” she said. Anyone with information about the incident can call 818-644-8029 or 818-644-8032.