More than a year after 43-year-old Leandro Antonio was struck and killed while crossing Dunlap Avenue near 16th Avenue, his family says the investigation feels stuck in neutral. Detectives have turned up few solid leads, they say, and the people who loved Antonio describe a quiet, painful shift in their lives since his death in late January 2025.
Relatives remember Antonio as the life of the family, the one who lit up gatherings that now feel noticeably dimmer without him.
A rising national problem
Antonio’s case is playing out against a grim national backdrop. A recent study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that hit-and-run crashes are on the rise across the country, with about 15% of police-reported crashes in 2023 involving a driver who took off instead of stopping.
Arizona is far from immune. The same analysis shows that roughly 7.6% of fatal crashes in the state between 2017 and 2023 involved a fleeing driver, a sobering figure that puts Antonio’s death in a much larger, troubling pattern.
Family pleads for closure
For Antonio’s family, those statistics are personal. They are still waiting for someone to come forward, or for detectives to get the one tip that finally breaks the case…