GRAPHIC: Hit-and-run of woman lighting firework in street leaves her with severe injuries

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A 21-year-old Lincoln woman is left with unanswered questions and severe injuries. Saturday night, a driver hit her, sent her flying across the street, and then took off from her northwest Lincoln neighborhood.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” said Emilia Graham, the woman who was hit.

Graham now needs constant help and attention from friends and loved ones. Even simple tasks like getting off the couch and walking outside require at least one person’s assistance.

“My partner has had to get me out of bed, in bed, sit down, use the restroom, shower, feed me,” Graham said. “I can’t really lift anything up, I can’t open anything.”

A neighbor’s security camera captured the crash, which happened right before 11 p.m. on July 3 during an annual party that Graham hosted.

Graham is seen leaning down to light off a firework. Within seconds a car speeds through the residential street. The direction it was traveling would also put it coming through an intersection with stop signs.

Dozens of Graham’s friends and family watched her get violently hit, thrown in the air, and land several feet away. Witnesses said Graham even put her hands out in front of her seconds before the car barreled into her, in an attempt to slow it down or brace for the impact.

“Did not stop,” said Adanya Hogan, a witness. “Went through the four way stop. Went around the fountain, hit Emilia and kept going straight. No brakes were pumped, no lights came on. They didn’t slow down, if anything they sped up after.”

Graham was left with a broken collar bone, a concussion, as well as dozens of scrapes and bruises that cover her body. The injuries to her face needed to be glued shut.

As of Monday night, the Lincoln Police Department said it doesn’t have any suspects.

“It could be somebody out of town, it could be somebody down the street,” said Jamie Graham, Emilia’s mother. “Just that if it was you or anybody in your family that it happened to, that you would feel the same way.”

The group said the suspect did leave some clues. On their way out of the neighborhood, it appears they scraped the side of another party-goers’ car that transferred paint and knocked off a mirror.

“You know I’m not mad at them or anything like that,” Graham said. “I just want to know why. There was a firework lit, they could have just waited or gone around the block and they just didn’t do anything like that.”

The hit and run has been reported to the police. If you recognize the vehicle in the video, call Lincoln Police at 402-441-6000.

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