Tekleab Bekuretsion, 26, is charged with DUI and leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injury after witnesses early this morning reported seeing a man fall from the hood of a car onto Lafayette Street at 1st Avenue South. The driver did not stop.
Responding officers found Timothy Brito, 35, lying in the roadway at 1:30 a.m. The preliminary investigation shows that Brito was crossing Lafayette under the I-40 overpass when he was struck and carried more than 500 yards before he fell to the pavement. Brito, who is homeless, was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he remains in extremely critical condition.
A short time after the crash, Hermitage Precinct Sergeant Nicholas McCluskey stopped the suspect vehicle, a 2002 gold Infiniti Q35 driven by Bekuretsion, on Murfreesboro Pike at Kermit Drive. Bekuretsion, who appeared extremely intoxicated, was unaware that he had been in a crash. The vehicle had sustained significant front end damage and fresh blood was clearly visible on the hood. Bekuretsion had been driving without his headlights on.
Bekuretsion was freed on the pre-trial-release program, and will appear in court on 07/31/2108.
