Hit-And-Run Victim's Mother Doesn't Understand Why Man Drove Away

The mother of a young woman killed in a hit and run accident on Friday said she forgives the man accused of killing her, but can’t understand why he didn’t pull over to help her daughter.

Oklahoma City police arrested Howard Banks, 62, Monday evening after he brought his car into a body shop to get it repaired.

The car, a maroon Mazda CX-7, was the same kind of car they were looking for, and had damage to the passenger side headlight which matched the evidence found at the scene of the deadly hit and run accident.

The workers at the body shop are the ones who actually turned him in.

8/31/2015 Related Story: OKC Police Arrest One In Connection To Fatal Hit-And-Run

“Oh God! Thank you god bless you,” said Angela Jackson, whose daughter Alexandra Ayala, 22, was killed in that hit and run crash.

Jackson had to hold back tears as she talked about how grateful she was to the workers of that body shop.

Had it not been for them, police may have never arrested Banks who is accused of leaving the scene of an accident.

Turns out Banks and Ayala's family are both longtime customers of the body shop.

“It won't bring her back, but at least now justice can be served,” Jackson said.

Jackson's daughter had Down Syndrome, and had managed to wander away from the family apartment early Friday morning when she was hit and killed while crossing the street.

Police released surveillance video of the car involved in the deadly hit-and-run the same day, and one can see right after the point of impact the driver kept on going.

“I'll never understand how someone could do that and just have no regard,” Jackson said. “And now it’s not just my family, but his family that is going to be affected as well.”

News 9 went by Banks' southwest Oklahoma City home to get his side of the story, but nobody was home.

Jackson said her Christian faith is what makes it possible for her to forgive, but she says she will never be able to forget.

“For the sake of my daughter, I have to forgive,” Jackson said. “I'll just never understand how he just disregarded my daughter's life like that.”

Banks was booked into the Oklahoma County jail but was released Tuesday morning on a $10,000 bond.

He has not been formally charged.