SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The Pacific Beach community gathered Tuesday to remember Hudson O’Loughlin, a 6-year-old boy killed in a hit-and-run crash last month while riding his bike with his family.

“May his kindness live on in every life he touched. May we all learn to slow down for Hudson,” his mother, Juliana Kapovich, said during a memorial at Crown Point Elementary School.

Hudson, described as a light by his family, shined over the brief service, with several members of the community gathered in his honor.

“We are forever grateful to this community for surrounding our family with love as we walk through the most painful season of our lives,” Kapovich said.

Tuesday marked 17 days since 6-year-old Hudson was hit and killed while riding his bike. His aunt, Nicole O’Loughlin, sharing how the lighthearted day quickly turned tragic.

“They were out for a family bike ride,” she told ABC 10News. “3 o’clock in the afternoon. They were on their way home. Less than two blocks from home. This shouldn’t happen.”

Hudson was hit by a driver in an alley on Pacific Beach Drive just west of Ingraham Avenue. Hudson died, but the driver left the scene.

The suspected woman behind the wheel, Tiffany Sanchez, was arrested at her home in National City a few hours later.

The legal team for Hudson’s family said Sanchez’s license had been suspended since 2017.

After the service at Crown Point Elementary, the group walked two blocks together holding orange and blue pinwheels — Hudson’s favorite colors — to the crash site to place a ghost bike.

Ghost bikes are white-painted bicycles placed as roadside memorials to honor cyclists killed in traffic accidents.

“We place this bike not only in memory of our precious boy, but as a call for change. No family should lose a child this way,” Kapovich said.

“The pain that his family’s going through right now is just indescribable,” added Laura Keenan. “I mean, losing someone to a preventable crash is just so unfair. Hudson’s missing out on so much.”

If anyone knows what the family is feeling, it’s Keenan.

Her husband was hit and killed by a wrong-way driver while riding his bike on Camino Del Rio South in 2021.

Now, she’s the co-founder of Families for Safe Streets San Diego.

Keenan turned her pain into purpose and hopes Hudson’s death can do the same.

“There’s a lot of tools out there, but we really need our city to take this seriously,” Keenan said.

She, alongside leaders from other organizations in attendance Tuesday — BeautifulPB, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, Circulate San Diego and BikeSD — have a renewed call for safer streets, slower roads and greater care for cyclists.

There’s also a petition pushing the District Attorney to “pursue charges that reflect the horrific nature of the crime.”

The driver accused in the crash has been charged with hit-and-run, vehicular manslaughter, and driving without a license. She pleaded not guilty last week and is currently out on bail.

A funeral for Hudson is scheduled for family and close friends Wednesday afternoon. A GoFundMe supporting his family can be found here.

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