Angered St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick addressed Friday morning’s hit-and-run crash that left a teen boy badly hurt and pledged to catch the perpetrator.
Speaking on 904 Now with hosts Pete Melfi, Davey Hartzel and Troy Blevins, Hardwick pledged to catch the driver who left the child severely injured on the side of the road and fled.
“People don’t tolerate this garbage around here,” he said. “You coward that ran from this…You ran. And now you are in a lot more danger and a lot more harm than you ever were before.”
Hardwick said his agency’s Real Time Intelligence Team was poring over surveillance cameras in tracking down the suspect.
“You could have just stopped,” he said. “You could have just been intoxicated. You could have just had a suspended license But now you have left the scene of serious bodily injury or potentially death and it goes to a much much higher degree.”
Hardwick said units are pulling video from surrounding businesses, schools and intersections as the probe proceeds.
“We will catch you,” he said. “We will catch you and hold you accountable for this cowardly act. You could have just stopped.”
Two days later, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office announced that investigators had identified a suspect and seized the vehicle involved in the crash.
The teen was heading to catch a bus along the rural road at 6:08 a.m. and was discovered by a resident at 6:45 a.m., suggesting that he was lying injured in the road for an extended period before being found.
He was airlifted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
“We’re hoping and praying that this young man survives,” Hardwick said.
One Response
very unlikely someone from out of the area is driving at 6am down this road. This is a local that was prob going to work and hit this child. Someone didn’t come home with a car today. If someone knows who this is and does not turn them in or helps cover it up, they are guilty of a crime.