Havertown Man Arrested For DUI Hit-Run
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (CBS) -- At around 10:30 last night, Upper Darby police say 62-year-old Randall Bratu of Philadelphia was riding his bicycle when he was struck and killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver. It happened near the 6400 block of Baltimore Avenue.
Officers arrested 53-year-old Paul Jones of Havertown. Police say Jones, who was driving a black Ford pickup truck, hit Bratu while he was heading westbound on Baltimore Avenue. At a news conference this morning, Upper Darby Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Jones was found next to Fernwood Cemetary, 30 yards away from where he was struck.
"Apparently, he had been hit by a vehicle and left to die on the highway," Chitwood said.
Police say four minutes after hitting Bratu, Jones hit another vehicle on Marshall Road in Lansdowne that was carrying two women and a child. The victims in that vehicle are okay.
"The guy hits them head on, bounces off of them. They got out of their van and looked at him, but he took off. They got not only a physical description, but a partial plate," Chitwood said.
Five minutes after hitting the second car, police in Havertown noticed the banged up Ford and pulled Jones over. Police say Jones was highly intoxicated and had a bottle of Oxycodin in the truck. Jones is in police custody on $500,000 cash bail facing at least one count of vehicular homicide, operating under the influence, aggravated assault, and other charges.
Police say Jones had recently retired from Amaroso Bakery and has no criminal record.
Reported by Jericka Duncan, CBS3; Steve Tawa, KYW Newsradio
