LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas family is grieving after losing their loved one to a suspected impaired driver on Wednesday, March 5.
According to Metro, 38-year-old Gerardo Lopez struck and killed 31-year-old Jessica Fodge, a devoted mother of four, who was returning home after dropping off her kids at school.
Metro said Lopez was caught on video running a red light and driving onto the sidewalk where Fodge was walking.
"This one involved an impatient driver who couldn't wait for a red light. Decided to go against the opposite lanes of traffic, make a left turn into a busy intersection, endangering the lives of traffic going the other directions. Made that left turn, lost control, went onto a sidewalk struck and killed a pedestrian," said a Metro officer.
Fodge was transported to the hospital but unfortunately did not survive.
"Jessica was everything. She was the bread and I was the butter. Like, without her there is no me," said Devon Mayers, Jessica's partner.
Channel 13 spoke with Mayers inside his home with his four kids.
He tells us the morning of the crash; he woke up around 9 in the morning and noticed Jessica was not there. He said that was unusual for her.
"Something just told me just to get up and start looking," said Mayers. " I end up getting up, going to walk outside and walk to the corner to see if I see her walking. I didn't see her. I decided to walk up farther and see if I can see her coming from down the street and that is when I noticed a crime scene. Investigation tape and everything up."
He asked a Metro officer at the scene what happened. He said the officer there initially told him that a pregnant woman was hit by a car.
He decided to leave the scene and look for Jessica at his kid's school because he knew she was not pregnant.
However, after arriving at the school, Jessica was still nowhere to be found. He then took his kids out of school and started walking with them back to their house.
“So we end up walking past that crime scene again and I just felt like the whole time that I was walking past that crime scene something was calling like, 'I’m here. I am right here.' I can just feel like there's something there, so I ask her [officer] again, 'Hey, have you found anything?' She was like, 'What kind of tattoos does she have?' and I described her tattoos and everything and she’s like, 'You know what, talk to my captain.' but like the way her face looked, she knew that my Jess was there. She just didn't tell me."
Unfortunately, it was Jessica.
Mayers tells Channel 13 he lost a part of him that day, but he said knowing his kids are safe, keeps him moving forward.
"It could have been worse. I am grateful that I got all my kids here," said Mayers. “I am not whole no more myself. she was everything I had. "
Mayers hopes the community remembers Jessica as a caring and loving mother who helped anyone in need.
"She was the type of person to give the shirt off her back to a person that didn't have one she was just a giving person."
If you would like to help the family with funeral costs, you can visit their GoFundMe, just click here.
