Boca Raton police have arrested a man they say hit and critically injured a Florida Atlantic University student earlier this year.
Police say David Blum, 51, was behind the wheel when he hit Mitchell Reidy onFeb. 24 at about 1:30 a.m. on the 2500 block of North Military Trail.
Reidy, 18, was taken to Delray Medical Trauma Center with head injuries.
Delray Beach police located Blum’s vehicle abandoned in a parking lot later that night on West Linton Blvd, according to an arrest report. Police say the car was damaged in the front.
The windshield was cracked and had brown, human hair embedded in the glass, the report states.
When Boca Raton police confronted Blum, they said he said he thought he hit a dog. Blum said in the report his wife, Jessica Blum, picked him up after leaving the vehicle. She told police she did not see the damage to the car.
Blum told police in the report that he was driving the car to his father-in-law’s because he thought the car was going to be repossessed due to being behind on payments. Blum said he changed his mind about dropping it off and made a u-turn.
He said he hit an object that landed on his hood, hit his windshield and then went off the other side.
Blum said he looked to see what he hit and kept driving when he didn’t see it, the report states. He said he pulled over because the car was unsafe to drive with the windshield cracked.
A driver saw a person in the roadway and called 911.
Investigators report they have sent DNA samples from the hair collected on the car’s windshield and hair collected directly from Reidy to a lab for comparison and are waiting on the results.
Police believe Reidy was at Blue Martini before the crash.
Reidy was still at the trauma center several months after the crash. His current condition is unknown.
Blum was arrested on July 21 by Boca Raton police for leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injuries. He was released on July 22 on $30,000 bond.