On the night of April 26, 2025, William Akens Jr. was crossing 65th Street in South Sacramento when a driver struck him. Witnesses told police the 26-year-old was hit once. Then while his body lay in the roadway, hit again. And again by multiple cars.
By the time it was over, he was dead and all of the drivers had fled the scene.
To city agencies, Akens became one of 42 people killed while walking Sacramento streets last year. But to his family, he was “Lil Will.”
He was his father’s only biological child. For years, the only grandchild on that side of the family. The baby who grew up into a big brother and the young man who had just become a father to a little girl.
“He was full of life,” his father, William Akens Sr., said. “He loved to smile. He loved to joke. He loved his family.”
In the days after the crash, and no driver held accountable, his family wanted one thing: to know who killed him.
Instead, the family says they encountered something else; a long and frustrating search for answers marked by what they describe as limited communication from the Sacramento Police Department and an investigation they believe stalled before key questions were even asked.
The Akens family says they received official confirmation of Will’s death three days after the crash. When they began calling the Sacramento Police Department for answers, they say their calls went unreturned. At first, they were told they could not even be given the name of the detective assigned to the case. They learned it by accident when a staff member let it slip: Detective Daniel Morlan.
They left multiple messages before receiving a call back. Almost a week after their son’s death, and following news coverage of the incident is when they finally received a call from Detective Morlan. When Morlan finally spoke with them, the Akens’ family recalls the conversation felt brief and procedural.
“He was checking boxes,” said Shiaren Akens, Lil Will’s stepmother. “It wasn’t compassionate.”
Poor Communication Problematic
What the Akens family was experiencing highlights a broader gap in how Sacramento handles fatal hit-and-run investigations.
Sacramento has a dedicated Major Collision Investigations Unit with five detectives, according to a spokesperson. It has written policies for traffic call-outs and collision reports.
What it doesn’t have: any requirement for when detectives must contact grieving families, how often they should provide updates, or how long investigations should stay active.
When the OBSERVER asked the department how quickly families of fatal hit-and-run victims should be contacted, a spokesperson responded: “No set timeframe.”
How often should families receive updates? “When practical,” the spokesperson said.
And when should investigations close? “When leads are exhausted.” The department did not define what qualifies as an exhausted lead. The family believes the investigation effectively stalled after investigators made a critical error.
In the weeks after the crash, the Akens family waited for updates.
One of the first major developments in the case reached them not through a phone call from detectives but through a post on X.
The Sacramento Police Department said investigators had identified a suspect vehicle connected to the crash: a 2007 Nissan Pathfinder with moderate front-end and driver side damage.
But it wasn’t until reading the final police report that the family learned something had gone wrong.
Investigators had identified the correct suspect vehicle early in the investigation but while attempting to locate it, detectives pursued a different vehicle — a 2001 Nissan Xterra with black wheels. After making that error, investigators no longer knew where the vehicle believed to be involved in the crash was.
The police department did not respond to questions from the OBSERVER about how the error occurred or what steps investigators took afterward to locate the correct vehicle.
Detectives began working the case in May 2025. By the end of July, the family says they were told there was not enough new information to keep the investigation active. The department also refused access to interview Detective Morlan.
“I believe they brushed this case off like it’s just another,” Akens Sr. said. “I don’t believe we got our fair justice in the investigation.”
A Pattern on Sacramento Streets
Fatal pedestrian deaths are not uncommon in Sacramento. In 2025, 38 pedestrians and four cyclists were killed in traffic collisions in the city, according to Sacramento County coroner data. Over the past five years, Black residents accounted for 28 percent of those deaths despite making up just 12.5 percent of the city’s population, dying at more than twice their population share.
Data from the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at the University of California, Berkeley shows Sacramento ranks among California’s most dangerous large cities for pedestrians and cyclists killed in hit-and-run crashes.
SafeTREC data reveals that among California’s top 10 cities based on population, Sacramento is the third highest for fatal hit-and-run rate with 38 percent of pedestrian and cyclist deaths involving drivers who fled between 2020-2024. The city has the third highest pedestrian fatal hit-and-run rate overall. It stands right behind Los Angeles and Oakland.
“What most research shows is that the certainty of being caught is much more influential than the penalty,” said Liza Lutzker, lead researcher at SafeTREC. “The certainty of being caught is the most influential factor in deterring people from committing almost all crimes, but definitely in the case of hit and run.”
Despite Sacramento’s high hit-and-run rate, the Sacramento Police Department did not provide data requested by the OBSERVER showing how many fatal pedestrian hit-and-run cases result in arrests. Without that information, it is unclear how often such cases are solved.
Advocates See a Gap
For Debra Banks, executive director of the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, the issue extends beyond individual investigations.
Banks has spent decades advocating for safer streets and sits on Sacramento’s Vision Zero Task Force, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths. She regularly attends community meetings in South Sacramento where residents ask for basic safety improvements like crosswalks, lighting and traffic calming.
But Banks says families are often left to navigate the aftermath of fatal crashes on their own.
“I think the city should have some kind of care program for families that are grieving because someone has been killed or severely hurt on their streets,” Banks said.
“Wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of program that helps support those people, helping them navigate the system?”
A Family Still Waiting
In his final email to the family, Morlan wrote: “There have been no new leads, and, unfortunately, as you may have seen on the news, numerous other hit-and-run collisions involving similar circumstances as those involving your son” and that “over half of our fatal collisions involve pedestrians illegally in or crossing the roadway where it’s unsafe.”
Akens Sr. said he interpreted the message as an attempt to blame his son for his own death and officials wanted to move on from the investigation.
“I believe the police were prejudiced toward my son,” Akens said. “When they saw alcohol in the autopsy report, in their mind they were done looking. They made him the perpetrator instead of the victim.”
Under California law, drivers must exercise “due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway,” even if the pedestrian is crossing outside a crosswalk.
The law does not automatically remove a driver’s responsibility simply because someone is jaywalking.
Nearly 10 months after Lil Will was killed, the driver who struck him has never been identified. The vehicle investigators believe may be responsible has not been located. And for the Akens family, the unanswered questions have made an already devastating loss harder to bear.
“For a lot of us, we would like to have some type of justice because we’ll never get him back.” said Shiaren Akens.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This investigation was produced with support from the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which works to strengthen and diversify the field of investigative journalism. The OBSERVER will continue reporting on pedestrian incidents and the impact on Sacramento’s most vulnerable communities.