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Westminster Police Ramp Up Efforts To Find Hit & Run Driver

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (CBS4) - A man struck by a hit-and-run driver one week ago in Westminster has died.

David Hernandez, 41, passed away from his injuries early Saturday morning. Now police are ramping up the efforts to find the driver.

Police admit to being frustrated. They desperately want to find out why someone hit a bicyclist and then for a distance of 1,000 feet dragged the bicycle under the car before finally getting out and removing it.

Hernandez's bicycle was mangled. His family has pleaded for help.

"We are asking for the public's help because someone knows who did this," Hernandez's brother-in-law Vince Trujillo said.

Hernandez was bicycling home from work last Saturday at 11 p.m.

"Leaving him there to die, I just don't understand it," Officer Craig Communal with Westminster police said.

Communal kept Hernandez alive, giving him a fighting chance, by giving him CPR in the middle of the road.

"It's always difficult to lose somebody, especially in that circumstance and you know it makes me feel I could've done more, but I did what I could," Communal said.

The investigation now turns back to the bicycle. Police believe the impact threw Hernandez 100 feet, and for another 1,000 feet his bicycle was dragged under the hit-and-run driver's vehicle southbound at the 9900 block of Westminster Boulevard. Police said there's no chance the driver didn't know what happened.

"It was definitely wedged under there, and from markings on the bicycle and the roadway we can tell it was wedged under the vehicle, and that's why we believe they had to get in there and tug and pull it out," police spokesperson Cheri Spottke said.

One week later, Hernandez's family and the police are speaking with one voice.

"We need someone with their conscience kind of eating at them to come forward and say, 'I'm responsible.' Or, 'I know who's responsible for this incident,' " Spottke said.

"We know the person who did this is feeling extreme guilt and we ask that you do the right thing and come forward," Trujillo said.

Police collected car parts, but they're not sure which ones are from last Saturday night or from previous accidents. But if someone shows them to a car with front-end damage on the passenger side, they say they have the parts to identify the car.

Anyone with information is asked to call Westminster police.

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