Father of young Queens hit-and-run victim pleads with killer

The father of a 5-year-old Queens boy who was killed by a hit-and-run driver Thursday begged the suspect to surrender to police.

Richard Martinez made the plea in a Friday interview where he also remembered his son Jonathan Martinez as a “very happy child” who “loved God.”

The youngster was on his way home from the park with his father and three siblings when he was fatally hit by a white Dodge pickup truck at 100th Street in East Elmhurst at about 5:30 p.m., according to police.

The driver sped away after the fatal crash.

“We were crossing the street and a white truck wanted to turn,” Martinez recalled. “He looked at us, he saw us four there, it seemed like he wanted to hit us,” the heartbroken father said in Spanish.

“I pulled my other children back but didn’t get to my third child Johnathan in time. He was struck by the bumper and two wheels ran over him.”

The elder Martinez said he forgave the cowardly suspect as he called on the suspect to turn himself in.

“I forgive you, we are human. All I ask [is] turn yourself into authorities. Tell them it was you that it was a mistake, whatever,” Martinez said.

“You have taken a piece of my heart … my child was innocent and had a whole future ahead of him.”

The boy — who was only a block from his house when he was struck — was pronounced dead less than an hour after the accident from severe trauma, police said.