Suspect fled NC hit-and-run scene on Christmas. Police later found him Mississippi.
The suspect involved in a deadly Christmas Day hit-and-run crash in east Charlotte was arrested in Mississippi.
Melvin Alexis Barahona-Zapata, 29, was arrested by the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) on Dec. 29 in Mississippi and recently extradited to Mecklenburg County.
Jail records show Barahona-Zapata was booked on Jan. 18, and released the next day, Jan. 19, on a $5,000 secured bond. He was arrested on a felony hit-and-run warrant out of Charlotte.
According to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department incident report, officers responded to a hit-and-run on North Sharon Amity Road just before 8 p.m. on Dec. 25.
At the scene, officers discovered that 36-year-old Sheridan Eugene Channing Brown had been struck by a vehicle, and that the driver had fled the scene without stopping to provide help or call the police.
Brown was transported to a hospital, where he later died, the report said.
DeSoto County sits on the Mississippi-Tennessee border, just south of Memphis. It’s about 615 miles west of Charlotte.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
