GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County teen walking to school after missing his bus was hit from behind by a drunken driver who kept going, and he screamed from a wooded ditch for hours before a woman heard him, police say.
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Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson reports that Xavier Morales, 14, missed his bus on Sept. 28 and was walking along McKendree Church Road to Collins Hill High School when he was hit around 6:30 a.m., he told police.
At 9:34 a.m., a woman called 911 after hearing screams for help in the woods behind her home.
An officer found Xavier in a ditch about 100 feet off the road, covered in cuts, according to a police incident report.
Paramedics took him to Arthur M. Blank Children’s Hospital with a fractured arm, leg and pelvis, the report says.
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Officers followed leaking oil and coolant from the crash site to a damaged Chevrolet Silverado on Prestonwood Drive, and neighbors’ cameras showed it arriving there a little after 6:30 a.m.
The officer wrote that the truck’s owner, 52-year-old Steven Muita Muriithi, first said he struck a pole, then said it might have been an electrical box, then changed his answer again.
“I’m pretty sure I hit a deer; I think it was a fawn,” Muriithi told the officer, according to the report.
Police say he admitted to drinking tequila and Heineken before driving and refused breath and blood tests.
Xavier’s mother, Yihanee Payano, said the crash left her frustrated and angry.
“I hope that he sees the legal system the right way because you just don’t do stuff like that,” she said.
On body camera video, the officer asks Muriithi why he did not call 911.
“Because I wasn’t injured,” Muriithi says.
He is charged with felony hit and run, felony serious injury by vehicle, DUI, failure to report an accident and failure to maintain lane. Jail records show he was held Thursday without bond on the two felonies.
Payano still does not know who made the 911 call.
“I just want to thank that person because they saved my son’s life for real,” Payano said.
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