Portland police in search of hit-and-run driver who left scene as a consequence of owed little one assist

PORTLAND, Tenn. (WKRN) — Portland Police are searching for the person responsible for hitting a man with his car and driving away from the scene of the crash.

The pedestrian was struck Saturday evening near TGT Road and Highway 109. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and told police the driver did stop briefly before taking off.

“First of all, just as a decent human being you would want to render aid to someone who needs help,” Police Chief Jason Williams said. “The individual that was struck did have a conversation with the driver of the vehicle who told him that his license was suspended or revoked for failure to pay child support. And so, he didn’t want to call the police for that reason.”

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Chief Williams said it’s never okay to leave the scene of a pedestrian crash and said the driver will likely face additional charges for leaving.

“It doesn’t help anything because if you hit somebody and it’s an accident, clearly there’s not always charges for that. But if you drive away and you don’t render aid like you should, you don’t notify the police then that becomes an additional issue,” Williams said.

Police are looking for a dark-colored sedan with damage to the windshield. The suspect is described as a white male in his early 30s around 5-foot-11 with a mustache.

Chief Williams said the department has already gotten tips from the public and is looking for any more information the community can provide.

“When they hear about something like this, we have a community that wants to give us information if they have it. So we’ve already received some information from the community that we’re currently following up on,” Chief Williams said. “We don’t like pedestrians being struck by vehicles to begin with, but it’s even more of a concern when somebody does something like this and leaves the scene. We also understand that there’s reasons for everything so we’re interested in those reasons. We’d just like to have a conversation with the individual just so we can bring some closure to this.”

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You can submit tips by calling the Sumner County Emergency Communications Center at (615) 451-3838.