Death of 'very loved' teen in Chicago Lawn hit-and-run marks second bicycle fatality of year

The family of an 18-year-old killed in a hit-and-run early Sunday morning is reeling as Chicago police continue to look for the driver.

The death of the teen who family identified as Damian Gomez is at least the second fatal bicycle fatality of the year so far, officials said.

"Damian was just 18 years old trying to figure out life and his future accomplishments," the boy's aunt, Daisy Torres, wrote in a GoFundMe post. "He was a good young man and very loved among all of us."

The GoFundMe has raised more than $7,200 by Monday afternoon.

The crash happened around 1:20 a.m. when the driver of a red 2015 Ford Explorer was traveling at a high rate of speed in the 6300 block of South Kedzie Avenue, Chicago police said. The driver ran a red light and hit Gomez, who was riding a bike, before colliding with a silver 2006 Honda Civic traveling south, police said.

The impact caused the silver car to land on top of Damian Gomez, according to a police report and relatives.

Gomez, 18, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. An autopsy Monday was inconclusive pending further studies, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A 22-year-old woman who was a passenger in the red SUV suffered trauma from the crash and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where she was in critical condition, according to the report. The 60-year-old woman driving the silver Civic was treated at the scene.

The SUV driver fled the scene on foot before responding officers arrived, police said. No one was in custody.

It's at least the second time a cyclist has been killed in a crash this year, according to date from the Chicago Department of Transportation and the medical examiner's office.

On Jan. 24, a 63-year-old man riding a bicycle in the 8600 block of West Irving Park Road was hit by a vehicle, according to the medical examiner's office. The bicyclist died a few days later, on Jan. 29, according to the medical examiner's office.

His and Gomez's death come as the city has seen a decline in cyclists killed in crashes. Chicago reported two cyclist deaths in 2025 — a number that has already been matched in 2026 — down on a steady decline from a peak of 11 in 2021. Between 2010 and 2019, the city averaged six cyclist deaths per year, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

That's despite the fact that bicycling grew 119% between fall 2019 and spring 2023 in Chicago, more than in any other major American city in the last five years, according to an analysis sponsored by the Chicago Department of Transportation.