Family mourns victim of Buffalo hit-and-run

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Paache Spikes-Redding lost her life on Thursday after she was struck by a Tesla Cybertruck at William and Davey Streets. The truck fled the scene, and by the time her husband Gregory arrived, she was gone.

"When I arrived, I saw the police tape and I could see what I thought was her covered up in a white sheet, which led me to believe that she had passed away," said Gregory Redding Jr., her husband, in an interview with WIVB News 4. "And I ran down the street to try to get to her, but due to it being a crime scene, I couldn't see her, and I haven't seen her since 7 o'clock Thursday night."

The tragedy took away a loving wife, mother, family member, and friend all too soon. In the wake of her tragic death, Gregory is living through the unthinkable and vowing to take care of her son -- who is now experiencing unimaginable loss.

"I was scared to go home and look that boy in his face and tell him that his mom died after he just lost his grandmother," Redding said. "His two most favorite people in the world, he just lost in one year."

Buffalo police recovered the vehicle Friday morning, but the crash is still under investigation.

While there are no updates from police at this time, former Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo discussed what happens following a hit-and-run, and what steps police could be taking at this time.

"Even if you get the vehicle, as we're seeing in this case, you don't necessarily have the driver. So this requires a number of investigative steps," Rinaldo said. "Search warrants to be executed, seizing the vehicle, attempting to extract the black box to get some data off the vehicle, which, depending on the make and model, can give you different variable points about speed, direction of travel, lights on, lights off, and is the radio on?"

Rinaldo said that since the vehicle is a Cybertruck, it could make for a more complex investigation.

"As AI and these driverless vehicles become more prevalent, these investigations are going to become more and more complicated," Rinaldo said. "You have to trust that the police take every single one of these extremely serious. They take it personal and treat it as if it was a member of their family. There is a number of steps ... these investigations can take a very long time, but know they never stop working on these so they can hold somebody accountable for the loss of your loved one."

Now, moving forward, Gregory said he wants to honor his wife's wishes when it comes to laying her to rest.

"She always told me ... if she had ever passed away, (she wanted) to be replanted as a tree and that's something that I really want to do for her. That's the last thing I can do for her besides raise her son as my own."

A GoFundMe can be found here.

WIVB News 4's Rob Petree contributed to this story.