Family Speaks Out In Fatal BW Parkway Hit-And-Run
HYATTSVILLE, Md. (WJZ) —The driver responsible for striking and killing a man on the Baltimore Washington Parkway in February has come forward.
As Tracey Leong reports, the victim's family is speaking out.
The man surrendered this past week, but the family says the charges he's facing are far too lenient.
For more than three months, police searched for the driver who hit 38-year-old Rick Warrick and his fiancé Julia Pearce and then kept going.
Warrick was killed in the crash, his wife was also hospitalized.
"We're human beings, not roadkill, that's what it makes me feel like roadkill," said Julia Pearce, fiancée.
On February 1, 2015 Warrick and Pearce were changing their tire on the side of the BW Parkway north of Route 197. Pearce says that one night shattering her world.
"You ruined my life, he doesn't have one, you ruined his parents life, you ruined his children's, they had to watch us on the side of the road," Pearce said.
Police say 73-year-old Earl teeter of Hyattsville turned himself in for the fatal hit-and-run, but Warrick's fiancé is not satisfied with the charges.
Pearce says, "Not anything that relates to him dying or me getting hurt, nothing of that, the only thing they can try is hit and run and reckless driving."
Pearce and her grandma are not believing Teeter's story and wondering why it took him more than three months to surrender.
"He still could have pulled over, he still knew something that night, he could have turned himself in that night, he didn't pull himself in, they found him," said Doretha Pearce, fiancée's grandma.
Teeter may get up to a year for this crime--Pearce says he's facing hit-and run-charges and reckless driving.
Warrick's loved ones say that just isn't enough.
"Your life doesn't matter, anyone can just drive around and hit somebody can get off," said Julia Pearce.
"Talking about a life that can't be brought back and a life that's damaged for the rest of her life," Julia's grandma said.
Earl Teeter's trial is scheduled for June 8th.
Teeter has been released under supervision and ordered not to drive.
