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2 men arrested for felony hit and run in Brookhaven
Brookhaven police arrested and charged two men Monday with felony hit and run. Police say both men separately ran over 55-year-old Linda Powell last Thursday and kept driving, leaving her to die in the road. Powell’s daughter has some powerful words for these two men and anyone else who’s tempted to leave the scene where they’ve hit someone.
COVINGTON, Ga. - Brookhaven police arrested and charged two men Monday for the hit-and-run death of a 55-year-old mother and grandmother.
FOX 5 first spoke with Amanda Whitaker Sunday as she called for the drivers who hit and killed her mother, Linda Powell, to face justice.
Monday, she was outside J.C. Harwell and Son funeral home in Covington.
"We were planning my mom’s funeral here," Whitaker said.
It’s been an excruciating week for her since her mother was hit and killed on Clairmont Road in Brookhaven on October 19.
"They ran over her like a grocery bag. You just run it over, and you don’t even think twice about it. It’s nothing. But she wasn’t nothing. She was a person. She’s my mom. She’s my kid’s grandma…she’s never going to be here for another birthday. And my mom loved birthdays," Whitaker said.
Brookhaven police investigators called her Monday morning to let her know they arrested the two drivers who, they say, both separately, hit her mom and then drove away.
They’ve charged 51-year-old Koechiesta Smith and 21-year-old Hugo Valente with felony hit-and-run resulting in serious death or injury.
"When I found out this morning, I felt so relieved and so thankful and happy… But my mom is still gone… I’m feeling a lot of different things, I’m angry, I’m hurt, I’m glad that they’re caught, but I’m sad that she’s gone. I’m sad for their families," Whitaker said.
Whitaker says she wishes with all her heart that these drivers would’ve done the right thing when they hit her mom, so that their families wouldn’t have to suffer as well.
"If they had just stopped, they wouldn’t be looking at any of the charges. Especially the first one, [Valente], if he had stopped, she might still be alive…I want them to have the maximum sentence," Whitaker said.
She had a message for anyone tempted to leave the scene of an accident, especially a pedestrian crash. "Do the right thing. Do what you would want someone else to do to you," she said.
According to data from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, fatal pedestrian crashes in Georgia have been rising in recent years.
In 2021, the latest year GOHS has available for data, 306 pedestrians were killed in crashes.
The highest total for the state in ten years.
Whitaker has organized a GoFundMe to help pay for her mother’s funeral expenses.