Hit-and-run driver kills retiree as he walked dog

STATHAM, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Marvin Barnes walking his dog Monday morning when tragedy struck.

A passing motorist left the road and struck him, killing the elderly man and his dog.

“It hurts. It just hurts,“ Latoya Brown, Barnes' sister in law, said.

A steady stream of family and friends gathered at the Barnes residence as deputies searched for the hit-and-run driver.

“I just pray that if there is someone somewhere trying to get the vehicle fixed that somebody reports it,” Brown said.

The 66-year-old retiree was walking his dog along a stretch of Jefferson Road at around 8 Monday morning when a vehicle left the road and struck him, killing Barnes and his dog.

”He lost control coming over that hill is what happened,” Barnes' neighbor Jean Stephens said.

Stephens saw the Infinity Sedan flee the scene, only realizing what happened after discovering the elderly man’s body in the road.

”It just breaks my heart," she said. "He was always doing for other people.”

Barnes, a husband and father to three children was described as a loving family man, who was kind and generous.

Brown urged the driver to turn themselves in.

“You done left a lot of people heartbroken," she said. "You done really did that.“

Police told FOX 5 they have found the car in an "undisclosed location" and are still searching for the suspect.

If you have any information on the incident, please contact Investigator J.D. Gann at 770-307-7669.