GhLinks Media
Police in Delaware have identified a pedestrian fatally struck by a motorcycle Tuesday as 18-year-old University of Delaware freshman Noelia Gomez of Clark.
Noelia Gomez was studying accounting and business management at UD, according to her LinkedIn profile. She graduated from Union Catholic High School.
UD’s president and vice president issued a statement Wednesday afternoon calling for the school to support one another.
“Incidents such as this are unimaginably tragic,” President Dennis Assanis and Vice President José-Luis Riera’s said in a statement. “We cannot express enough how sorry we are for the family, friends, and greater community as we are all so deeply shaken by the sudden loss of one of our own. Our hearts are very heavy today.”
Police said the motorcyclist was fleeing a UD police traffic stop just before midnight on Tuesday. The motorcyclist, whom police have not yet identified, “disregarded the police officer’s emergency lights and fled at a high rate of speed.”
As the motorcyclist sped away, they hit Gomez, who was crossing on West Main Street, just west of North College Avenue, in Newark.
The driver was ejected, while the motorcycle continued on and hit four more pedestrians, causing non-life-threatening injuries.
The motorcyclist was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. As of Thursday afternoon, no charges have been filed.
Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso said the news of Gomez’s death is “devastating.”
“You send your child to college hoping for a great future for them, and then this happens,” said Bonaccorso. “It’s just so sad. How do you even explain it. You wake up in the morning and you don’t know what you’re going to get in the day, you really don’t.”
He said word that Gomez was the victim of the fatal crash was just beginning to spread around the town Thursday afternoon.
He was unsure if any type of remembrance was being planned.
