A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in connection to a deadly hit-and-run crash in Methuen, Massachusetts.
The Oct. 14 crash on Jackson Street left 57-year-old Tim Lafferty dead. Monday, Methuen police announced that a suspect was in custody.
Police didn't identify the driver, a boy from Lawrence. Charges against him include manslaughter, reckless operation resulting in death, leaving the scene of a crash causing personal injury, collision causing death, unlicensed operation and two counts of witness interference/intimidation. Police also said he was speeding.
The car involved was quickly found after Lafferty was hit, police said. Authorities determined that the teen took the car from its owner's home on Brook Street, later bringing it back with front end damage.
Police added that the teen made verbal threats to a witness in the crash.
The driver and the car's owner know each other, according to police.
When he was hit, Lafferty was in the street while a tow truck was delivering a vehicle to his home, according to a woman who lived with him who spoke to NBC10 Boston last week. The tow truck driver had looked away for just a second and Lafferty was hit, police said at the time.
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"I'm not really concerned too much with the person that hit him, I just – I'm just sad that I lost my brother," Lafferty's brother, Charlie Johnson, said last week. "A very selfless guy, he worked his whole life, never took much vacations, never did much for himself but in his free time he was helping other unfortunate people."
"This was a tragedy that was entirely avoidable," Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon said in a statement Monday in announcing the arrest. "I'm proud of the tireless effort our officers put in to investigate this incident and identify the person responsible so that they can be held accountable for their actions."
The suspect is due to be arraigned Tuesday in Lawrence Juvenile Court.
