Suspected hit-and-run driver charged with killing Tacoma woman arrested Tuesday
Pierce County prosecutors have charged a man suspected in a fatal hit-and-run collision in Tacoma.
Jeremy Murray, 28, is charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, felony hit-and-run and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle for a May 15 collision that killed 67-year-old Monica Santos.
Murray was booked into the Pierce County Jail on Tuesday.
Charging papers give this account:
Two patrol officers noticed a car driving without headlights the evening of May 15 and got behind it. The car abruptly turned from Pacific Avenue to East 56th Street, sped up and nearly struck a pedestrian in the crosswalk.
As the driver of the 2002 Dodge Stratus drove into oncoming traffic and almost hit several cars, the officers stopped pursuing him.
Moments later, the officers entered the intersection of East 56th Street and McKinley Avenue East and spotted the Dodge in the middle of the road.
A 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue was nearby.
Witnesses told police the Dodge driver was going at least 60 mph when he ran a red light and hit the Oldsmobile, which was traveling north.
The driver of the Dodge took off running after the collision.
A K-9 tracker found his T-shirt a block and a half away but did not find him.
Santos, who was driving the Oldsmobile, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 53-year-old woman in the passenger seat suffered a fractured neck and lung contusions, records show.
The day after the crash, a tipster called police and identified Murray as the hit-and-run driver.
Detectives then found the owner of the Dodge, who said she’d loaned it to Murray but reported the car stolen when he didn’t get back to her.
They went to Murray's Tacoma home. A man there said Murray had been by recently and described cuts on his arms and legs.
Murray was at large until he was arrested Tuesday.
This story was originally published May 22, 2018 at 9:29 AM with the headline "Suspected hit-and-run driver charged with killing Tacoma woman arrested Tuesday."