A 44-year-old man is facing felony murder charges following a Friday afternoon hit-and-run that killed a bicyclist on Tucson's southeast side, authorities said.
Eric Joseph Corral has been booked into the Pima County jail onΒ charges of second-degree murder, fleeing and failing to stop for a serious injury collision, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
At about 6 p.m. on Friday, police responded to reports of a serious bicycle crash on East Valencia Road and South Nexus Drive, and found 58-year-old Scott Koch on the scene with life-threatening injuries, Dugan said.
Tucson Fire Department transported Koch to Banner University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The vehicle that struck Koch had already fled the scene, but detectives received detailed information about the driver, vehicle and how the crash had occurred from witnesses, Dugan said.
An off-duty police officer heard the vehicle's description dispatched across the radio in an attempt to locate, spotted the car, and called it in, so that officers in marked vehicles could respond to the suspect's location, Dugan said.
Corral's vehicle was located by the additional officers who attempted a traffic stop, but he refused to pull over initially. When he finally stopped the vehicle, in the area of Golf Links and Swan, officers noticed that Corral displayed signs of impairment, and he was taken into custody.
Traffic detectives at the scene of the crash determined that Koch was on his bicycle on the northeast corner of Valencia and Nexus, waiting to cross southbound at the crosswalk, Dugan said.
Corral was driving westbound in a 2011 Dodge Avenger and failed to stop for a red light, striking Koch when he entered the crosswalk with the right-of-way, Dugan said.
Detectives believe both speed and impairment were factors in the crash.Β
