Milwaukee hit-and-run, woman seriously injured; man now charged
MILWAUKEE - A 32-year-old Milwaukee man is charged with "hit-and-run, great bodily harm" after a pedestrian was struck by a car near 13th and Atkinson on Tuesday, March 19. The accused is Fulton Williams.
According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee police officers were dispatched to 13th and Atkinson on March 19 where a car was reported to have struck a pedestrian and left the scene. The woman who was struck was taken to the hospital where she remained on life support, officials said.
A witness told police the woman was crossing Atkinson Avenue and was in the middle of the street when a "car came driving eastbound on Atkinson Avenue at a high rate of speed," the complaint says. The car then fled the scene. A second witness provided a similar story.
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Investigators on the scene "found a trail of pieces of debris broken off of a car." They also reviewed video from a nearby camera. The footage showed a blue sedan "traveling at a high speed and striking (the woman)," the complaint says. The car "does not slow, swerve or stop" -- and the complaint goes on to say "based on the lighting and the position and movement of (the woman's) body relative to the car windshield, it appears impossible for the driver not to have known that he hit someone."
Officers believed the car involved in the accident was registered to the defendant. A witness who knows the defendant told police "the defendant called the witness on the day of the crash, shortly after the time of the crash, and said that he was 'in trouble' and would turn himself in to police," the complaint says.
Suspect vehicle in 13th and Atkinson hit-and-run
On March 24, officers went to the defendant's listed address. They spoke with the defendant's mother, who let the officers check the garage. Inside they found a blue sedan that "had heavy damage to the windshield and hood, and it had hair stuck in the windshield," the complaint says. The garage door opener had been unplugged -- and the overhead garage door had been "rendered difficult to open because a wooden stick had been lodged into the rail of the door's track," the complaint says. The defendant's mother also told police that cars are not usually parked in the garage and she was "surprised to find this car in it."
Later on March 24, officers from the Fugitive Apprehension Unit located and arrested the defendant.
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Williams made his initial appearance in Milwaukee County court on Friday, March 29. Cash bond was set at $25,000.
Editor's note: The hit-and-run victim later died. She was identified by the medical examiner's office as 61-year-old Marnetta Powell.