UPDATED INFORMATION: POSTED JUNE 12
DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. — Authorities are now saying the driver who allegedly hit a man who was sleeping on the side of a road kept driving because he didn’t know he ran over a person. He though he hit a bag of leaves and a limb.
Deputies said as the news of the hit-and-run spread throughout the DeSoto County subdivision, one man contacted authorities worried that he was the driver in question.
The man told authorities he used the road that morning and hit what he thought was a bag of leaves and a tree limb; he never thought that he had hit a person.
The driver then went to the scene with deputies and detectives. The detectives determined the man’s vehicle was likely the one that hit the man who was sleeping on the side of the old, narrow construction road.
The case is still under investigation, but DeSoto County authorities said there is no reason to believe the incident was anything other than an accident.
ORIGINAL STORY: POSTED JUNE 11
DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. — DeSoto County deputies are looking for the driver who hit a man near the Bonne Terre neighborhood just outside of Horn Lake and kept driving.
Neighbors couldn’t keep from slowing down to try to figure out what was going on.
Tim Cornelius was on his way to go fishing when he noticed the yellow tape, flashing blue lights and deputies standing watch over a stretch of the road he knows all too well.
“That is usually like a service road. Like if a big truck comes to deliver, they use that road. We don’t have this problem. We have no crime, no trouble, no anything. So to see this is kind of strange.”
He says it’s a cut-through that many people use, and because of all of the overgrown brush, it’s sometimes hard for drivers to see down the path.
“It’s a dark little area. You could get away with a lot.”
Deputies told us the road was blocked off, because a pedestrian was hit and the driver didn’t stop.
One of the neighbors we talked to couldn’t take the suspense of not knowing exactly what was causing all of the chaos. She says she woke up to helicopters overhead. It’s a sound she isn’t used to.
“Blue lights flashing is unusual here, because it’s quiet.”
Deputies say the pedestrian is alive, but they don’t have a good description of the driver yet. If you know anything you can call the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office.
