Witness: Truck hit panhandler, took off

Woman says pickup’s occupants also threatened her; driver not yet located

A pickup struck a man panhandling on a median of Old Pecos Trail at the St. Michael’s Drive intersection and left the scene before police arrived, according to reports released Thursday.

The reports say a witness told officers the truck was traveling at a high speed when it took a wide turn and drove up onto the median, hitting the man Tuesday evening.

A woman who says she witnessed the incident contacted and said a woman driving the truck, as well as a female passenger, got out of the vehicle after the collision and “harassed, punched, hit and threatened” her and attempted to grab her cellphone as she tried to get help for the injured man. The witness, who said the driver’s breath smelled of alcohol, requested not to be identified because she was threatened by the women.

Asked about the incident Wednesday, Greg Gurulé, Santa Fe police spokesman, said police were still investigating the case and characterized it in a email as a “noninjury accident hit and run.” He also said, “We have no basis for the claim it was a DWI.”

Yet police reports released Thursday by Gurulé say a witness reported the driver of the truck smelled of alcohol and that the man who was struck was transported to the hospital to be checked for potentially broken bones.

The police reports say the driver and passenger switched sides in the truck before fleeing. Another witness followed the truck and told police it pulled into a residential driveway in the 800 block of Old Santa Fe Trail.

Officer Richard O’Leary wrote in a report that he and Officer Brandon Deets knocked on the door of that residence but nobody answered. O’Leary wrote the last known address listed for the truck owner was in the 200 block of Arroyo Hondo Trail. Sheriff ’s deputies were dispatched to that address, according to O’Leary, but the truck “was not located at the residence and no one was home.”

Police reports describe the truck as a 2017 Silver GMC registered under Texas license plate number JYJ4017.