The woman who was killed Friday evening in a hit-and-run incident on Southern Avenue SE was a highly regarded physician’s assistant at the nearby United Medical Center who was lauded and praised by those who knew and worked with her.
Emebet Kebede, 56, of Lanham, Md., was “intelligent, kind, hard-working, respectful,” said Russom Ghebrai, her supervisor at the hospital.
He said she “ dedicated her life to the community” served by the medical center, which is the only hospital in the city east of the Anacostia River, and is located in an area generally regarded as medically underserved. She “chose to be there,” Ghebrai said.
She served the community “with all her heart,” Ghebrai said, with no hesitation or limitations.
On Friday evening, she had finished work and was on her way home, Ghebrai said.
Normally, he said, she would have driven. But her car was not working, he said, and she decided to walk to the nearby Metro stop.
According to the police account, she was halfway across Southern Avenue when she was struck at 6:10 p.m. She died at a hospital.
Police said she was hit by a car that was heading northeast on Southern Avenue. A “person of interest” and a “vehicle of interest” were being sought, they said Friday night. The vehicle was described as a “newer model black Chevrolet Tahoe.”
Kebede was born in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and studied to become a physician’s assistant at Howard University, Ghebrai said.
She had worked at the old D.C. General Hospital for 10 years before it closed, he said, and had been at United for 10 years.
She and her husband had two daughters, he said.
She was “a fantastic person,” said her husband, Michael Habte. She “lived to help people. Always, Everywhere. On the street. At home. Everywhere.”