Police arrest suspect in hit-and-run accident

A Miller County man, Cleve Batte Jr., was arrested Thursday night for alleged involvement in a hit-and-run accident, according to a Miller County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Officers received a call Thursday referencing a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed on U.S. Highway 71 South. While deputies were responding, they received another call advising the speeding vehicle had caused an accident on Miller County Road 22 and fled the scene. The two victims of the hit-and-run, Laura and Rusty Wallace, were transported to Wadley Regional Medical Center, said their daughter, Jamie Robertson.

Several witnesses at the scene said they saw the suspected vehicle traveling on Miller County Road 505 with extensive

damage to the driver’s side front-end.

Batte was arrested a short time later without incident for leaving the scene of an accident with injury by the Miller County Sheriff’s Office, according to the news release.

“Shame on the person that did it, that left my parents in the ditch with no concern for their safety or well-being as humans. How would they feel if it were their parents?,” Robertson said Friday.

“My dad is in ICU, he had to have his spleen and appendix removed, his left side is crushed and has multiple fractures in all his ribs. He’s sedated and on the respirator. He’s not out of the woods yet. My mom is very bruised but was able to leave the hospital. But I’m going to take her back to the ER because she can’t get any relief,” Robertson said.