Michael Mikey Espinoza, 11, struck and killed by hit-and-run driver in Denver, Colorado

Oswaldo Lopez, the man accused in the hit-and-run death of an 11-year-old boy on Federal Boulevard, was charged Tuesday morning with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Lopez, 21, has been in jail since Sunday night, when he was arrested at his home in Aurora. Several people were in the Denver courtroom to support Lopez, but all declined to comment. According to police reports, Lopez hit Michael "Mikey" Espinoza as the boy attempted to cross Federal on the bridge over West Colfax Avenue about 8 p.m. Sunday. Police said Lopez drove away from the scene, but parts of his dark blue Dodge Charger were left behind — a piece of the bumper and a license plate. Mikey was with his 14-year-old cousin, Joseph Talamantes, when he was killed. The boys were headed home from a Denny's restaurant near Sports Authority Field. Gwen Espinoza, Talamantes' mother, also was in the courtroom. "My son is 14 years old and had to see his cousin die in his arms," she said tearfully. Mikey, was a fifth-grader at Knapp Elementary School in Denver. His father, Brian Martinez, said the boy was active, an outdoors kind of boy who loved sports, dogs, snakes, lizards and most other animals. An analysis of data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration by iNews Network shows 104 people were killed in 99 hit-and-run accidents in Colorado between 2008 and 2012. About 75 percent of all hit-and-run fatalities during that period were in five Front Range counties. In 2012, there were 34 hit-and-run deaths, nearly double the number reported in 2011.