PORT RICHEY, Fla. (AP) — A 19-year-old Florida man who fled the scene of a motorcycle crash that killed a young boy surrendered to police a day later, telling them “he couldn’t live” with himself.
On Saturday night, Marquel Anthony McClendon, 7, was out looking at Christmas lights with his family when the motorcycle driven by Shaun Elliott Wyrich hit him.
Wyrich walked into the Port Richey Police Department on Sunday and surrendered to Florida Highway Patrol troopers. He told them his first instinct after the crash was to flee because he knew he wasn’t licensed to legally drive the motorcycle, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
After he hit the boy, Wyrich told investigators he “got scared and just decided the leave,” according to arrest records.
When news broke that the child had died, Wyrich told investigators that guilt got the better of him.
“I couldn’t live with myself knowing what I had done,” he told investigators on Sunday afternoon, the arrest report said.
Wyrich now faces a felony charge of failing to stop/remain at a crash involving death and a misdemeanor charge of operating a motorcycle without a license, court records show. He was released from jail after posting a $20,500 bond.
Investigators said the boy, who would have turned 8 on Dec. 20, wanted to go for a walk with his family to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights. They were crossing a road about 9:20 p.m. when Wyrich hit the boy while driving his 2019 Kawasaki EX400 motorcycle at a “high rate of speed.”
Wyrich then got back on the motorcycle and drove away from the screaming boy and his family, the arrest report said.
Multiple residents provided investigators with home security footage of the crash. And shards of plastic that fell from the motorcycle helped troopers identify the make and model. Authorities put out a “Be on the Lookout” report for the wanted driver.
Wyrich turned himself in about noon on Sunday.
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