DEVOTED MOM KILLED IN HIT-AND-RUN TWO SUSPECTED OF DRIVING STOLEN SUV.

Byline: RACHEL URANGA Staff Writer

RESEDA -- Struggling to raise four children in troubled neighborhoods, Maria Carmen Ferman prayed with them to teach them devotion, giving what little she had to transients to teach them generosity.

Her elder son grew up and joined the Army. Her younger son worked two jobs to make ends meet. And her younger daughter sought her mother's company, pleading in vain to accompany her on a quick trip to the store Thursday night.

On her way home, officials say, just a block away, Ferman was hit and killed by two theft suspects in a stolen SUV. Police say there was no evidence they tried to slow down -- not even a skid mark.

``I had high hopes that it wasn't her,'' her 28-year-old son, Ivan Ferman, said Friday in a phone interview from Colorado, where he is stationed after returning from a tour of duty in Iraq.

``We were planning to have them move here after the New Year. At first she was hesitant but after that she thought it was what's best.

``I guess now, it's not.''

Ferman came to the United States about a decade ago from El Salvador, a country ripped apart by war. Her husband was supposed to follow, but he was fatally stabbed in a poker game before he could make the trip.

She only had a seventh-grade education and spoke little English, working low-paying jobs -- from construction to a seamstress -- to keep her family afloat.

``She wore secondhand clothes to give us the best,'' said her 21-year- old son, William Ferman. ``She wouldn't buy herself a damn thing unless she really, really needed it. She would take care of the children first.''

With her sons now old enough to make a living, Maria Ferman had hoped that tough times were over.

``I really wanted to get her out of this neighborhood,'' William Ferman said.

William recalled that his mother had been robbed at gunpoint a couple of months ago, yet never showed anger or fear.

She attended St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church every Sunday. And she was known to give the little change she had to panhandlers, never making judgments, because she knew how harsh life could be.

``Honestly, to me, she is a saint,'' William Ferman said. ``I wish I would have told her how much I loved her.''

Last year, she and William rented a two-bedroom apartment in Reseda. She shared one bedroom with her two daughters, ages 16 and 13, but the $980 rent proved too much for their budget.

They gave up their home three months ago, Maria Ferman and her younger daughter moving in with friends on Saticoy Street, a block away from the accident that ended her life.

Ferman had run to the store to buy juice and bread for her daughter Maria Estella, whose 14th birthday is today.

Around 6 p.m. Thursday -- a little more than a mile from Ferman's home -- police allege that Sergio Valle-Arellano, 26, and Oscar Lozado, 24, snatched a purse from a laundromat. Inside were the keys for a Honda SUV and they went for a ride.

It's unclear what the men did for the next few hours but police believe that Lozado was at the wheel of the eastbound SUV when it hit the 4-foot-11 pedestrian as she crossed in the 18000 block of Saticoy Street.

More than an hour later, around 9:30 p.m., police pulled over the Honda, which was being driven erratically.

Valle-Arellano was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and theft after police recovered the purse in the car.

A half-hour later, police apprehended Lozado, who was riding a bicycle near Van Nuys Airport. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and theft.

Police refused to say why they believe Lozado was driving when Ferman was killed or how Valle-Arellano came to be driving the car.

In 2006, the Los Angeles Police Department recorded seven hit-and-run fatalities in the San Fernando Valley. Ferman is the first this year.

``Somebody lost their life needlessly,'' LAPD Detective William Bustos said.

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) Maria Ferman holds her niece Joyce Lopez, flanked by her two daughters, Maria Estella, left, and Margarita Del Carmen. Ferman, an immigrant from El Salvador, was killed in a hit-and-run on Saticoy Street on Thursday night.

(2) Los Angeles police investigate at the scene where Maria Ferman was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver. Two men were arrested on suspicion of hitting Ferman in a stolen SUV.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

Map:

Fatal hit-and-run

Warren Huskey/Staff Artist