A driver wanted by police in a deadly hit-and-run in Douglas County over the weekend has surrendered, authorities said Monday.
Brian Anthony Russell, 51, of Douglasville, is being held in the Douglas jail without bond on charges of hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death and homicide by vehicle/leaving the scene, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Audrey Hartley, 56, was killed while attempting to cross at a stoplight at the intersection of Midway Road and Fairburn Road, sometime between midnight Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday, authorities said.
Nasir Javaid, the clerk at a gas station on the corner of Fairburn and Midway roads, told Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes that he saw Hartley walking, then went to the back of the store for a moment.
“That’s when I heard the bang,” he said. “We went outside, saw her laying right there by my driveway, that’s when I called 911.”
He said he did not see the car that hit Hartley, a regular customer at the gas station.
There is a sign posted at the intersection where Harley walked that says it is state law to stop for pedestrians.
Javaid told Fernandes that accidents are a regular occurrence at the intersection.
“We get a lot of wrecks over here, lots of them,” Javaid said. “And that was the baddest one I’ve seen.”
Michael Hartley, the victim’s ex-husband, told Channel 2, “I just don’t see how somebody does that and can’t stop.”
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