Driver arrested, charged with felony after running into pedestrian Sunday, police say

A man has been arrested and charged with felony hit-and-run in connection with a pedestrian’s death on North Graham Street Sunday night, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.

Matthew Alan Midkiff, 31, was hit and killed by a green pickup truck around 9:15 p.m., police said.

A 58-year-old man, Norris Nathaniel Richardson, came to CMPD headquarters on Monday morning and was arrested after speaking with detectives, police said. His truck was seized by police at his home.

Midkiff was crossing North Graham Street a few blocks north of Atando Avenue, north of uptown, police said. That section of the road has overhead lights but no crosswalk or walk signals, police said.

He is the 19th pedestrian killed in Charlotte this year, CMPD Sgt. Jesse Wood said. That means the city has seen a 35 percent increase in pedestrian deaths compared to this time in 2017.

“We are really trying to educate the pedestrian public, the driving public, about traffic safety, about being aware of your surroundings — not being distracted by mobile devices or anything else,” Wood said.

Wood said there have been cases of drivers hitting something and not necessarily realizing they’ve been involved in a hit-and-run, but he said it’s still the driver’s responsibility to stop and confirm what happened.

More than a third of the people killed in crashes in Charlotte this year have been pedestrians, Wood said.