![\"Jazmin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CTC-L-justice-marcella-14.jpg\")
Jazmin Ruiz, yells a chant into a megaphone as she leads a march through Pilsen on April 19, 2026, calling for justice for her friend Marcela Herrera. Marcela was killed in a hit-and-run on July 19, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\nHundreds of protesters filled the streets of Pilsen on Sunday afternoon, chanting for justice and answers in a fatal hit-and-run that has remained unsolved for nine months.<\/p>\n
Dressed in black and pink, members of the crowd marched from Harrison Park to the Chicago Police Department\u2019s 12th District precinct, calling out the name of 22-year-old Marcela Herrera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen detectives ghost us and leave us with no answers, what do we do?\u201d demonstrators shouted. \u201cStand up, fight back!\u201d<\/p>\n
Herrera was killed around 11:19 p.m. on July 21 while crossing the street at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Cullerton Street with her fianc\u00e9, 21-year-old Mauricio Leyva. Police say an unknown driver struck the couple and fled the scene, killing Herrera and seriously injuring Leyva.<\/p>\n
Despite surveillance footage showing a dark-colored Dodge Journey leaving the area, no arrests have been made, said Chicago Police.<\/p>\n
Nine months later, Herrera\u2019s family says the lack of progress and communication has deepened their grief.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is it possible that this much time has passed, and we have no answers?\u201d asked Naomi Herrera, the victim\u2019s younger sister, who spoke outside the 12th district precinct during Sunday\u2019s rally. \u201cHow is it possible that the person responsible is still out there, living freely, while my sister is gone forever?\u201d<\/p>\n
The march marked the family\u2019s second rally pushing for action, as organizers say early communication with detectives has since stalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, they were very responsive,\u201d said Jazmin Ruiz, a close friend of Herrera and one of the rally\u2019s organizers. \u201cBut in the last months, the detectives have not reached back out, they\u2019re not taking calls and responding back. So we\u2019re not going to stand still. We\u2019re going to make noise again until we get some momentum going again.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the night she was killed, Herrera had been helping Ruiz at Pilsen\u2019s Tacos y Tamales Festival, where Ruiz worked as director of logistics for Green Curtain Events, the organization that hosted the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tragic that I lost her that way, doing what she loved, and she was really happy on her last day,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cI\u2019m over here starting to plan the busiest time of the year for the festival\u2019s events, which she loves, and I don\u2019t have her there with me to do it anymore. Her life was just beginning, and she was just ready to thrive, and she had so many plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz said the lack of resolution has made it difficult to grieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve still not fully accepted that this happened,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s times where I just literally sit and cry and think, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this is real.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders with the Chicago Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, an independent city department focused on CPD oversight and systemic police reform, joined the march, saying Herrera\u2019s case reflects a broader pattern across Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were created for situations like this, because they happen far too often,\u201d said Leonardo Quintero, chair of the 12th District council.<\/p>\n
Jazmin Ruiz, yells a chant into a megaphone as she leads a march through Pilsen on April 19, 2026, calling for justice for her friend Marcela Herrera. Marcela was killed in a hit-and-run on July 19, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
He said he is currently working with at least 10 other families in the 12th District facing similar frustrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how cases go cold,\u201d said Rosemarie Dominguez, who represents the 10th district. \u201cWhen there\u2019s no communication where there is no urgency, the system fails and families are left carrying the burden of grief and the search for answers on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission will host a public meeting April 30 at DePaul College Prep focused on support for victims of violent crime and needed reforms.<\/p>\n
The Herrera family attorney, Roberto Mario Mart\u00ednez, also spoke, crediting public pressure with pushing authorities to treat the case as a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s of paramount concern that we continue to make these demonstrations, to push the city into a position where they\u2019re more likely to investigate these sorts of crimes,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said.<\/p>\n
Herrera\u2019s family is urging anyone with information to come forward. Anonymous tips can be submitted by texting \u201cCPD Tip\u201d to 738-477.\u0301<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the person who did this: you made a choice,\u201d Herrera said. \u201cYou left her there, you ran. But you cannot outrun what you did. And we will not stop fighting until you are found. And to anyone that knows something, do the right thing. Speak up, help bring justice to my sister and peace to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The march concluded with a moment of silence at the intersection of Ashland Avenue and Cullerton Street, where Herrera was killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sister will not be another cold case,\u201d Herrera said. \u201cShe had dreams, she had a future and her life mattered. We refuse to let her be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of protesters filled the streets of Pilsen on Sunday afternoon, chanting for justice and answers in a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":739644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,7122,5417,5386,1818,305216,65061,73215],"class_list":["post-739643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-police-department","tag-hit-and-run","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-marcella-herrera","tag-pilsen","tag-unsolved-case"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116433976073137333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}