There are heavy hearts in Rancho San Diego, where a beloved grandfather, who helped educate members of our military, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Sunday.
Members of his family stood at a curbside memorial near the crash site and said a prayer for 81-year-old Augustine Youhanna as investigators continued their search for the hit-and-run driver who took his life.
"He was my best friend, confidante, mentor — everything to me. Half of me died with him," his son, Wisam Youhanna, said.
Augustine's family says he was a devout Catholic who was enjoying his Sunday ritual, walking home from St. Peter's Chaldean Church, when the crash happened around 11 a.m.
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Augustine was legally crossing Jamacha Road when a car turning onto Brabham Street hit him, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Family members says witnesses told them the driver stopped long enough to blame the crash on Augustine, who was still alive after the crash, but later slipped into a coma and died at the hospital.
"The driver, they stopped him. They said, 'What did you do? You hit someone.' And he blames my dad, and says he threw himself against my car," Wisam said.
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Augustine retired to Rancho San Diego to be closer to his sons and grandchildren. His family says the former math teacher was the consummate educator who served others. They showed NBC 7 pictures of the commendation coins he received for teaching American servicemembers how to speak Arabic.
A memorial near the crash scene serves as a sign of remembrance and a beacon for anyone who knows anything to call CHP.
"You can’t turn back the hands of time, but your actions, you've got to pay for them," Augustine’s son Patrick said.
The family is taking some solace in the fact that his father will now be reunited with his wife of more than 50 years after she passed away in January. Now, they're just hoping for justice.
“Turn yourself in. How can you live with yourself? I run over a small animal, I go back and check, did I actually do it,” Wisam said. "How can you hit someone, blame him, and keep going and not come back?"
CHP only has a vague description of the suspect. They say he was driving a mid-2000s Toyota Corolla with gold faded paint.
