Sheboygan man, age 20, charged with fatal hit and run downtown after parade
SHEBOYGAN − Sheboygan County prosecutors have charged 20-year-old Jordan Hernandez in connection with the death of an older Sheboygan man who was hit by a car near City Hall.
Terry Rozanski, 69, was hit while crossing the intersection of North Ninth Street and New York Avenue around 6:20 p.m. Nov. 27, about half an hour after Sheboygan's holiday parade ended. The fatal crash was not on the parade route and not related to the parade, police said.
According to the criminal complaint, first responders found Rozanski laying in the road about 30 feet south of the south crosswalk with significant head trauma. Rozanski died of his injuries early in the morning of Nov. 28 at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center in Neenah.
A witness told police the driver, later identified as Hernandez, "made no attempt to stop" and fled southbound at "an accelerated speed" after striking the victim.
Video surveillance from City Hall show the car "barely slowed" before the impact and never stopped even after the pedestrian went over the hood of the car, police said.
When located by police that night, Hernandez first told officers a friend of a friend had borrowed the car, but then admitted to hitting a pedestrian, according to the criminal complaint.
Hernandez, who had obtained his driver's license only the month before, told police he knew drivers are supposed to stop if they hit someone but he left because he "freaked out," and continued to roll through stop signs and even drive through a red light after the crash because he was "so scared."
Hernandez told police he wished he would have stopped to check on the pedestrian he hit and was sorry for what happened, according to the criminal complaint.
Hernandez signed a $35,000 cash bond including the conditions that he does not drive any car. If convicted of the fatal hit and run, a felony, he could face a maximum fine of $100,000, a maximum of 25 years in prison, or both, and would have his operating privileges revoked for five years, according to state law.
Reach Maya Hilty at 920-400-7485 or MHilty@sheboygan.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan man charged with fatal hit and run after holiday parade
