GRAND PRAIRIE – A middle school teacher surrendered to Grand Prairie police at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in last week's hit and run death of 6-year-old John Raidy, who was hit by a car as he crossed the street.
Grand Prairie Police Department spokesman Sgt. Eric Hansen said Tammy Lowe, 53, turned herself in alongside her husband. She was booked into jail.
During a press conference, Hansen said Lowe left a hand-written resignation letter at Adams Middle School before surrendering.
She taught Texas history and began working at the school in 1996. She is jailed on $100,000 bond. On Tuesday afternoon, the charges against her were upgraded from injury to a child to manslaughter, a second-degree felony. She is also charged with failure to stop and render aid, a third degree felony.
She appeared distraught and pale, Hansen said.
The case sparked community outrage when a car ran a red light and hit the child as he crossed North Carrier Parkway at Holiday Hills. The boy's mother was just a few feet away, pushing her daughter in a stroller.
An intense search for the car and driver has been underway ever since, propelled by a grainy surveillance image of a black, four-door Toyota Yaris fleeing the scene. In the days leading up to her surrender, Lowe's colleagues grew worried about her behavior and asked for police to conduct a welfare check.
John Raidy's grandmother, Anita Eads, said the family will be able to bury him with "a little lighter heart" knowing that a suspect is in custody. She thanked the media for its coverage, which extended far beyond the Dallas/Fort Worth Area.
