DC groom-to-be killed after car hits him, fiancee

A 38-year-old man was struck and killed while changing a tire on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway Sunday night and his family is pleading for help to identify the driver.

"I'm praying that somebody, if they know anything that happened, will come forward," said Charmaine Ferrell. "Even the person that hit him, I'm just really praying they would turn themselves in."

U.S. Park Police say a car hit Rick Warrick and his fiancée Julia Pearce just after 9 p.m. Sunday on the parkway in Anne Arundel County in Maryland.

Warrick died while his fiancée was taken to Baltimore's Shock Trauma Center. She is expected to survive.

It all happened so fast that Pearce didn't get a chance to get a look at the car.

Warrick's mother will be the first to tell you that it really has not sunk in yet.

"That's my baby," said Ferrell. "He's all I had left. I don't have other kids. He's the only one."

The person who hit Warrick just kept going without stopping.

"He was just about his family and it was unfortunate that he was out there trying to keep his family safe when somebody just took his life," Ferrell told us.

This happened on northbound lanes of the parkway near Route 197. Warrick was going to dinner with his fiancée as well as his teenage son and daughter. His maroon Hyundai Excel got a flat tire and Warrick pulled over to change it.

U.S. Park Police Sgt. Lelani Woods says Warrick was killed when he was hit by a car. There is no description the hit-and-run driver or the striking car, so police are checking auto body shops.

"If the vehicle has any damage, it would be on the front right panel of the vehicle," said Sgt. Woods.

Warrick's family says they are desperate for information. For weeks, he and his fiancée had been planning a wedding.

"He was a very loving man," said his aunt, Karen Evans. "He loved his children and this is really a shock for our family."

"I just pray that you just turn yourself in and understand they are a family that is grieving for the loss of a loved one," said Sean Anthony, Warrick's stepfather.

As for Warrick's mother, she said whoever killed her son needs to look into their heart and come out in the open about what they did.

"The family understands, but it's still not right to just leave the scene and keep going," she said.

Warrick leaves behind a total of three children.

U.S. Park Police asks if you have any information about this fatal hit-and-run, you can call their tip line at 202-610-8737.