Ex-radio host offered aid to man, child hit by car

Alan Miller couldn’t figure out what was causing traffic to go so slowly on Rainbow Boulevard near Warm Springs Road on Monday morning.

But as he pulled forward, the former longtime host of the KOMP-radio, 92.3 FM, morning show saw a terrifying sight: a woman holding a bloody toddler and frantically waving him down.

As he pulled to the shoulder, it became clear the girl and a man Miller later learned was her grandfather had been hit by a car.

The man, identified Tuesday as 63-year-old Michael Grubbs, was pushing his 18-month-old granddaughter in a stroller north along the gravel shoulder off Rainbow just before 11 a.m., according to Las Vegas police.

A dark gray Honda Civic was heading north on Rainbow when it left the asphalt, went into the dirt and hit Grubbs and the toddler. It appeared that Grubbs pushed the child out of the way as the car approached.

The driver of the Civic quickly left the scene, police said.

Miller said he didn’t see Grubbs get hit, but he was just a few cars back when it happened, creating a bottle neck on Rainbow.

He tried to slowly maneuver around traffic when he saw the woman holding the girl.

Miller met her gaze and knew he had to stop.

“I looked at her like, ‘Me?’ ” Miller said. “But that’s just what you’re supposed to do. Sometimes you just gotta stop.”

Miller ran over and quickly checked the toddler, who had a cut above her eye and nothing more serious.

“I rubbed the baby’s back and told her, ‘It’s gonna be OK,’ ” Miller said. “But then she started grumbling like she was trying to tell me something.”

Then Miller looked to the right, where he saw Grubbs lying on the ground as another man was pleading for him to breathe. The good Samaritan asked Miller to check Grubbs’ pulse, but there was nothing there.

Grubbs occasionally gasped for breath, Miller said, but his eyes never opened.

About 15 seconds later, Miller estimated, firefighters showed up, loaded Grubbs onto a gurney into and rushed him and his granddaughter off to University Medical Center.

“I wasn’t sure how bad it was going to be,” Miller said. “I was just hoping we would have a miracle.”

Grubbs died at the hospital from his injuries. His granddaughter was released with just minor injuries.

The driver of the Honda, described only as a woman in her 20s or 30s, fled the scene. Witnesses told police the car that struck the pair had a Nevada license plate with a number that starts with 948. The car has tinted windows and damage to its right front side.

Miller finds what she did unconscionable.

“You hit a baby and you leave. You hit a grandfather and you leave,” Miller said. “What does that say about you?”

Miller said the crash showed the worst in humanity, but it also brought out the best.

A woman cared for a scared child who wasn’t her own. A man held a dying stranger, comforting him in his last moments. Other people chased the driver on foot and in cars trying to make out a license plate number.

But most of all, what Grubbs did for his granddaughter, making sure she was out of harm’s way, touched Miller the most.

“His last gift was an act of love,” Miller said. “What a hero he was.”

Police are asking witnesses to call 311 with information. They can also contact police at 702-267-4750 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 and crimestoppersofnv.com.

Reporter Kimberly De La Cruz contributed to this report.Contact reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Find him on Twitter: @ColtonLochhead