Hit & Run Driver Arrested After 1 Dead, 1 Injured
NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4)- A hit-and-run has ripped a hole in the hearts of two families.
One family left Jackson Memorial Hospital in tears Tuesday night, after their 21-year-old loved one died.
Another family is praying their loved one will pull through.
Lasharn Williams and her family are having a tough time knowing her uncle, 55-year-old Charles Williams is laying in a hospital bed after being hit by a pickup truck. Police say he is in serious condition.
"Just hurting right now, waiting on a good report," Lasharn told CBS4's Natalia Zea with tears running down her cheeks.
"He's just laying there helpless, can't move, can't talk barely. He's just there, "said another of Williams' nieces, Jamie.
Their only comfort is knowing the man who police say hit Williams and kept going is behind bars.
It all started around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon in Northwest Miami-Dade. Williams and a 21-year-old man were standing on the sidewalk next to a bus stop waiting for a bus when a burgundy pick-up truck crashed into a car in the nearby intersection of NW 27th Avenue and 79th Street, took off from that crash and then plowed into the two men.
Troomain Brown saw and heard the hit. "The way it sounded, it sounded like he hit another truck! It was that loud," he said.
He said the 21-year-old was worse off.
"As soon as he got hit he was motionless, his body was twisted. He couldn't move, his head was twisted and his body was twisted."
Both men were rushed to Ryder Trauma Center. Williams was admitted, the other man died on the way.
Police say the driver who caused this heartache would have gotten away if it wasn't for a good Samaritan who saw and heard the commotion and ran the hit and run driver off the road with his own pickup truck.
"This is a prime example of community involvement, one courageous guy who comes forward, takes action at great personal peril to himself," said Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus.
Williams' family is grateful to that quick-acting man. His daughter Carla Askew said, " I just thank him cuz my daddy could've been dead too and I just thank him."
Witnesses at that scene who spoke with the accused hit and run driver say he was very drunk. Police gave him field sobriety tests, but are not yet saying whether he was under the influence. At this point he has been arrested and charges are pending.
