PALM BAY, Fla. – By collecting broken pieces of a plastic bug guard and interviewing witnesses on the scene, Palm Bay police were able to identify Christopher Harris as the suspect in the hit-and-run that left a 12-year-old child bicycling to Discovery Elementary injured in Palm Bay last week.
Police reports released Thursday indicate that witnesses at the scene were able to describe Harris's vehicle and give a partial tag number, allowing officers to find Harris's home a few miles from the scene of the crash, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.
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When officers arrived, arrest reports state, they found a vehicle matching witness descriptions.
Warm tires, a hot hood, a shattered bug guard and a scuffed front bumper indicated to officers that the vehicle at the residence was the same one involved in the hit-and-run.
Officers reported that the vehicle's owner, Harris's girlfriend, told them that he had been using the "greyish blue" Jeep Cherokee that morning.
When Palm Bay officers found Harris at his work, they approached him and asked if he had been involved in the earlier crash. According to arrest reports, he admitted that he had, adding that he left because "the kid looked like he was fine" and he had a suspended license.
After being charged with felony leaving the scene of a crash with injury and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license, Harris is currently out of jail on surety bond and has not yet been arraigned in court.
The crash was one of two that day that happened near a Palm Bay school; the other left a 5-year-old child and his father with minor injuries, and the driver was cited with failing to yield to a person in a crosswalk.