An Orlando man has been arrested in connection to a fatal hit-and-run crash more than a year ago in Orange County, court records show.
The crash occurred shortly before 6 a.m. Sept. 10, 2023, on Kissimmee-Vineland Road, south of LBV Factory Stores Drive, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The driver — identified as WJ, 44, of Orlando — struck a pedestrian while driving an SUV southbound along Kissimmee-Vineland Road, troopers said.
FHP eventually made contact with J, who told troopers he “didn’t know what (he) struck,” according to the crash report.
Troopers’ affidavit for J’s arrest warrant sheds more light on the investigation. In it, FHP identifies the pedestrian as 51-year-old DAJ, of Kissimmee, and states he was possibly lying “in an unknown direction in the inside travel lane of (Kissimmee-Vineland Road)” when he was struck.
Later that morning, a trooper responded to Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista South — about 1.3 miles away from the area of the crash — to check for damage on a potential hit-and-run vehicle and to meet with its driver, J. The trooper noted the vehicle was an SUV with “fresh front-end damage (and) blood splatter consistent with a pedestrian strike,” the affidavit states, adding J told the trooper that he believed to have hit construction debris on his way to work.
About two weeks later, troopers heard from a witness who performs security at the hotel, the affidavit states.
The witness said that he observed J acting strange on the morning of the crash, scared and trembling. Upon asking J what happened, he allegedly replied, “I don’t know I was coming to work, and I hit something or somebody,” and when the witness then asked J if he called the police, he reportedly said, “No, I just came to work because I was scared,” according to the affidavit.
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source: clickorlando
