UPDATE: The Martin County Sheriff's Office said a 22-year-old man responsible for leaving the scene of crash earlier this week that injured a 15-year-old bicyclist was arrested Thursday night in Stuart.
Deputies received information about the possible location of the suspect, Ronald Joseph Jr., and waited to see if he would show up.
When Joseph Jr. arrived, deputies said he attempted to flee the area but was quickly apprehended.
MCSO says Joseph is charged with leaving the scene of a crash with bodily injury, and with introduction of contraband into a correction facility, after deputies found marijuana stuffed in his pants during the booking process.
A driver's dash camera video and multiple tips helped identify Joseph as the man in the video.
Joseph was in court Friday morning and is being held on $508,000 bond on four charges.
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ORIGINAL STORY:
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Martin County detectives feel they are getting closer to tracking down the hit-and-run driver who injured a teenage girl riding her bike.
That girl, 15-year-old Juanna Sic, is home from the hospital with relatively minor injuries.
She has a scraped up face, injured arm and hurt leg. She is wearing a sling to relax her arm muscles injured in the accident.
Speaking through a translator, she said, “I can’t believe I’m here today.”
Sic was riding home from school Tuesday, and says she had the right-of-way to cross the street in front of Fisherman’s Cove along Kanner Highway.
“It wasn’t his turn to go. She was already ready to go. By the time she noticed, she was already hit,” the translator said.
Sic remembers screaming and hitting the ground.
The driver kept going and is seen on dash camera video pulling into the nearby fire station. He runs down the sidewalk back to the scene of the accident, stays for a few seconds, then runs away.
She said she can recall seeing him come up to her, not knowing he was the alleged hit and run driver.
Sic says she is “sincerely scared” to get back on her bike.
She will either walk to school now, or find another ride.
The only thing she says that is keeping her head up is knowing deputies are working hard to make an arrest.
“She feels good because she knows the person is going to pay for what they did,” the translator related.
She is also grateful for a couple good Samaritans who stopped to help her, give her gauze for her bleeding wounds and wait for the ambulance with her.
