CHP looking for driver who hospitalized 3-year-old in San Jose hit & run

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3-year-old Eli may have to spend Christmas in a hospital bed this year. That's thanks to a hit-and-run driver who put him in one Tuesday night in San Jose. The young boy survived, but suffered head and face injuries. Now California Highway Patrol is trying to find the driver. 

It happened at the intersection of Roe-Hampton Avenue and Vancouver Court. The family hopes the person responsible will come forward. 

Eli's parents asked us not to use his last name. 

"I heard the little kid yell, 'my arm hurts!'", said Cindy Vargas, a neighbor and witness to the aftermath. Other neighbors say the boy had been out walking the family dog with his grandparents.

"It hurt me because I saw the grandma saying in Spanish, 'Oh, I feel like it's my fault'", said Vargas.

Witnesses initially stated the dog ran into the street and the boy chased after it. 

According to CHP,  it happened around 10:45 p.m. They say the child was struck by a silver sedan, possibly a Honda and that the driver then took off, leaving pieces of the car and the injured child behind. 

"We cannot say definitively if the driver was aware they struck the pedestrian and hit the little boy," said CHP Officer Ross Lee. 

Authorities are looking for additional witnesses and for surveillance cameras in the area. 

"Right now I'm still praying to god that that kid is okay and nothing happened to him because that's horrible. It's just horrible," said Vargas.