NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested a driver in connection to a hit-and-run crash in Northwest Miami-Dade that left a woman fighting for her life.
Miami-Dade Police said 72-year-old Leon Morton was behind the wheel during the hit-and-run and told them he knew he had hit someone. He also told officials that he knew the right thing to do was to stop, but he did not.
Morton faced a judge Tuesday afternoon. He has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury.
According to investigators, Morton was behind the wheel of a red pickup truck that was traveling northbound on Northwest 32nd Avenue, near 47th Street, when the vehicle struck the pedestrian, at around 7:10 p.m., Monday.
Surveillance video from a nearby business captured a late-1990s Toyota Tundra hitting the woman just feet from the curb. The driver swerved around her while she lay on the road, then sped away.
Police later identified the victim as 53-year-old Shaun Renee Floson.
An area resident who asked not to be identified or show her face on camera said she heard the crash.
“I heard the sound of tires screeching,” she said, “but when we looked out the window, we saw an ambulance pulling up … When we looked again, we saw them picking up a person off the sidewalk and putting them inside the ambulance.”
Paramedics transported Floson to Ryder Trauma Center.
7News spoke with the 53-year-old’s family Tuesday who said she’s still in critical condition.
“I don’t hate him, I just hate what he’d done,” said the victim’s brother Theodore Floson. “Common decency is that if you run over somebody, you hit somebody, to at least stop and try to render some aid or give some help.”
The victim’s sister, Thelma Thomas, cannot believe someone would just leave the scene.
“At least he could have got out to see how she was doing,” Thomas said.
Police tracked down Morton by 11 p.m., Monday night, at a Marathon gas station.
When they caught with him, officials said they noticed he had a vodka bottle in his pocket.
Officials have opened up a DUI investigation now as well.
Morton told police he was part of the Cocaine Cowboys era and had already spent many years in prison.
He is being held on $100,000 bond, and he is to be put on house arrest if he bonds out.
Floson’s family members said one of her arms is broken in three places, and she also suffered severe head trauma.
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