Created: 5/17/2007 7:17:57 PM 
(Columbia) ? A young boy is recovering at Richland Memorial Hospital after a hit and run accident Tuesday.
8-year-old Tyreek Jones was doing what most kids do on a sunny afternoon?playing outside?when police say a car hit him.
It?s what the driver did after hitting the child that has his family upset.
?It was scary. I almost had a heart attack out on the road,? said Kara Jowers, Tyreek?s grandmother.
Kara says she was only hoping her grandson wasn?t dead.
?I was just hoping that he?s okay. That was my thing,? Jowers said.
Two days later, she?s feeling more relieved, but her emotions haven?t subsided.
?Why would you run if you hit an innocent 8-year-old child?? she asks.
Yet that?s what investigators say happened, as the child played on the sidewalk in the 2500 block of Gordon Street in Columbia.
After the accident, Tyreek?s family says the driver picked the boy up and carried him to the porch of his home, where Tyreek?s stepfather answered the door and rushed him to the hospital.
Meanwhile, police say the driver got back in his car and sped off. Police found the abandoned vehicle a short time later, but not the driver.
Left with a broken femur, Tyreek underwent surgery yesterday at Richland Memorial, where doctors put in pins to fix his broken leg.
?[The pins] are going to be there the rest of his life,? Jowers said.
While Kara waits for her injured grandson to heal, she wishes the person who hit him would turn himself in.
She?s also left with questions to which she has no answer.
?Yesterday, [Tyreek] was asking, ?Grandmamma, why did the man hit me?? I said, ?Tyreek, I don?t know,? Jowers said.
Tyreek?s family is hoping he?ll be able to come home from the hospital on Friday, but they must wait for a doctor to fit the boy?s leg with a brace. Once home, he?ll begin physical therapy.
Columbia police say they are looking for a person of interest in this case, but have not yet named any suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 1-888-559-TIPS.
