Gastonia police investigating fatal hit-and-run crash

GASTONIA, N.C. — Police are looking for a driver who hit and killed a man in Gastonia.

ALSO READ: Victim dies weeks after hit-and-run in south Charlotte; driver caught

The victim’s girlfriend, Natalie Lang, said he was in the middle of saying ‘I love you’ when an SUV slammed into them and kept going.

The family of the victims spent two days grieving with no justice. The video of the incident came from a camera in the intersection at Linwood Road just up the street.

Police said the SUV hit the couple as they rode bicycles in the turning lane on Garrison Boulevard.

Police obtained a video that shows the SUV moments before the crash just after midnight Sunday morning.

Lang said she and her boyfriend Cody Cochran had a disagreement earlier that night.

Around the same time the light at the intersection turned green, Cochran apologized and started to say ‘I love you".

“Before he can get the ‘you’ out there was an explosion beside me on my right side,” Lang said.

She said the mirror of the SUV hit her shoulder.

“There was debris flying everywhere. Plastic metal felt like it was smacking me,” said Lang.

She told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon it happened so suddenly. It was like the SUV dropped out of the sky and knocked Cochran down Garrison Boulevard.

Lang ran over to him.

“The car was gone,” she said. “They didn’t even hit the brakes.”

The 28-year-old father of three died at the hospital. His step-father, Kenneth Gambrell, said he was full of joy.

“It’s sad to see his life was taken at this young age,” Gambrell said.

He said he has been fighting for answers since he heard about the crash. Now they have a suspect’s vehicle to focus on.

“I won’t stop until we get resolution,” Gambrell said. “If you have any heart for what has happened or what you have done, please do the right thing and turn yourself in so my son and the family and his children can have justice.”

The vehicle is a dark four-door SUV. It’s a smaller car. Police haven’t released the make and model. They hope you can help them find it.

VIDEO: Troops search for hit and run suspect in Catawba County