ST. GEORGE — Hurricane Police announced Friday afternoon that the driver of a truck involved in a fatal hit-and-run incident over the weekend has been arrested and charged with a felony.
The Hurricane Police Department issued a press release over social media Friday naming William J. Hendrickson, of Camp Verde, Arizona, as the suspect in the death of a 22-year-old Hurricane man that occurred early Sunday morning.
The incident occurred near 500 N. State Street in Hurricane at 1:18 a.m. when Hendrickson, who was driving a 2006 Honda Ridgeline, is said by police to have hit the Hurricane resident and continued down State Street without stopping.
According to a previous report, the man who was hit had been reported to dispatch to be “acting strangely and had almost been hit by a vehicle.”
The name of the deceased man has not yet been released by authorities.
By the time police arrived at the scene, the man had already been hit by a passing vehicle. Life-saving measures were taken, but the man was pronounced dead after being taken to St. George Regional Hospital.
While the police reached out to the public for any information they might have concerning the incident, security camera footage taken from a business that filmed the crash led police to Hendrickson, the press release states.
Hendrickson was interviewed by police with a lawyer present and “admitted he knew he had hit something on the roadway but thought it was debris in the roadway.”
Hendrickson was subsequently arrested and booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility on a third-degree felony charge related to leaving the scene of fatal incident.
The truck Hendrickson drove was also seized and will be processed for evidence as a part of the investigation, the release states.
Hendrickson’s lawyers sent St. George News the following statement shortly after this report published:
Although this matter has been referred to in the media as a hit and run fatality it is unfortunately just a tragic accident. Although we have not been privy to the police reports, videos or statements of witnesses, all indications are that the deceased, for reasons yet to be determined, was laying prone in the road at the time he was struck and the accident was unavoidable. My client reached out to me before being contacted by police in order to arrange an interview with police. Mr. Hendrickson believed what he struck was either roadkill hit by the other vehicle which had already stopped at the scene or some sort of debris. We look forward to working with law-enforcement to bring closure to this tragic accident for all of the parties involved and our hearts go out to the friends and family of the deceased.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
St. George News reporter David Dudley contributed to this story.
Update March 28, 10:30 a.m. Lawyer statement added.
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