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UPDATE: Officials with the Phoenix Police Department said on Aug. 15 that the case was closed because it had actually been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for decision on charging the suspect involved with hit-and-run. They also clarify that the detective assigned to the case did obtain surveillance video from the laundromat in June. We are told that MCAO is reviewing the case. The original story continues below.
PHOENIX - A young woman severely injured in a June hit-and-run says Phoenix Police closed her case due to a lack of evidence.
However, her mother obtained surveillance video that she believes tells a different story.
The backstory:
Patricia Taveapont was leaning over the trunk of her parked car near 35th Avenue and Fillmore Street at around 11 p.m. on June 6 when a black car backed into her at "full speed."
"I literally screamed out as soon as the car had drove away," Taveapont said. "I immediately covered the back of my knee to apply pressure, so I can try to stop the bleeding a little."
She continued, "EMTs arrived, the police arrived, asked me what happened, I told them. They checked me out, and they took me to the hospital," Taveapont said.
According to her mother, Shirlene Yazzie, Taveapont underwent five hours of vascular surgery to repair a broken artery in her right leg.
Dig deeper:
Yazzie said that two weeks after the crash, a detective told her the case was closed.
"I got the name of the detective from Shirline. I left her a voicemail. I was pretty upset. Let them know that I was extremely upset that I heard that they closed the case. Nobody's come looking for any type of video," said Doug Cokes, owner of Tiny Bubbles Laundry.
Yazzie went to Tiny Bubbles Laundry, and obtained surveillance video of the incident. Cokes even provided screenshots of the two people inside the vehicle that hit her daughter.
"You could see clear as day who these people are," Yazzie said. "Very frustrating and overwhelming that somebody could just tell you there's nothing they could do when the video was there."
Because of the seriousness of what happened to Taveapont, Cokes spent additional time scrubbing through surveillance video to get clear photos of the driver and passenger. FOX 10 isn't showing the faces of those two people because they are not currently charged with a crime.
Phoenix Police declined to release any information about the case, stating a public records request would need to be filed.
FOX 10 made the request.
Map of where the hit-and-run happened