Boy Hit by Truck Dies; Police Call It Murder

A 17-year-old Burbank youth, who police believe was intentionally struck by a pickup truck in an alley last weekend, has died, police said Friday.

Patrick Hay, who had suffered severe head injuries, died after being removed Thursday from a respirator at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, said Burbank Police Sgt. Doyle Holm.

Police consider it a murder and are looking for the driver of the truck. Witnesses described the truck as a large, dark blue Ford or Chevrolet pickup with a primer-gray tailgate and rust primer spots on the driver’s door, Detective David Gabriel said. The truck was elevated and may have been a four-wheel drive, he said.

Witnesses described the two assailants as men with blond hair in their early 20s, Gabriel said.

The truck followed Hay and three other teen-agers into an alley behind Thrifty Drug Store on Hollywood Way after Hay and his friends argued with an unidentified man and woman outside a Taco Bell restaurant nearby, police said. During the argument, the woman flagged down the dark blue pickup truck for help, Gabriel said.

Once Hay and his friends realized they were being followed, they drove into the alley where they planned to confront the vehicle, Gabriel said. Hay and the driver of his vehicle got out of the car and were walking toward the truck when the truck driver accelerated, hit Hay and drove off.