Suspects in hit and run still unidentified
By Casey Mozingo
Published in News on September 2, 2018 3:05 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Trooper Justin Gorman and Sgt. Michael Dorsey interview a man who was mowing his grass near the scene of a hit and run Tuesday night on Pikeville-Princeton Road.
The initial investigation by the North Carolina Highway Patrol has determined that the hit and run that occurred last week on Pikeville-Princeton Road was criminal in nature.
The victim, Jason Allen Morgan, 38, of Rocky Mount, was hit by a gold Chevy Cobalt while he was in the middle of Pikeville-Princeton Road around 6:30 Tuesday night. The driver, a white female, fled the scene toward Johnston County with another white female in the passenger's seat, Sgt. Michael Dorsey with the North Carolina Highway Patrol said.
Dorsey said that a warrant was obtained to collect the vehicle after it was located Wednesday morning.
On Thursday, the troopers Reconstruction Team and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office searched the vehicle. It was determined that the incident was not an accident.
"We know it to be an intentional act," Dorsey said. "If it is believed to be intentional it is no longer, by DMV standards, a collision, so it is turned over to the sheriff's office."
Initial interviews of people involved were done by the highway patrol, but sheriff's office investigators will handle the follow-up interviews. Once the person, or people, responsible are identified, the sheriff's office will obtain an arrest warrant.
Morgan was flown from Wayne UNC Health Care to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville Tuesday night and placed in intensive care, but he has been moved to a private room. He requires additional surgeries, Dorsey said.