Friends Devastated Over Retired Officer's Arrest In Hit & Run
McKEESPORT (KDKA) -- Retired Allegheny County police officer Tim Tatters spent several hours in the Allegheny County Jail Friday after police arrested him in connection with a fatal hit-and-run accident earlier this week in McKeesport.
Investigators say Tatters told police he spent 11 hours in The Country Corral bar prior to the accident that claimed the life of a psychiatric patient along Lysle Boulevard.
Folks at The Country Corral say they doubt Tatters was intoxicated.
"He's a slow drinker. I think he comes more to hang out, for something to do than to... I mean I never seen him like wasted or drunk or anything," Lorene Livingstone, a bartender, said.
Others describe Tatters as a good guy who wouldn't intentionally run someone down. A woman, who did not want to be identified, says she's his good friend and talked to Tatters moments before his arrest.
"He feels awful about it. He said he deserves to be punished for something that he did, that he didn't realize he did it," she said.
People at the bar tell KDKA that Tatters was back at The Country Corral Thursday evening when the news came on TV that Tatters was a suspect.
"The news came on, they showed his picture, and the whole bar got quiet and just looked at him," she said. "He said 'Oh, man, I feel so bad.'"
Authorities say Tatters told police he thought he may have struck an animal, and didn't realize he hit a person. He was released Friday afternoon on a $100,000 unsecured bond.
He's also been ordered to stay out of bars and to not drive his car.
RELATED LINKS:
Former Officer Arrested In Fatal Hit And Run (1/18/13)
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