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Polk County hit-and-run driver arrested
Justin Matthews reports.
FORT MEADE, Fla. - The driver involved in a hit-and-run crash that resulted in the death of a nine-year-old on Friday night has been arrested, according to authorities.
The incident occurred on Hutchins Road in Polk County.
Police say nine-year-old Andres Martinez was backing out of his driveway on his bike when he was struck and killed by a red Chevrolet pickup truck.
The truck fled eastbound on Hutchins Road following the crash without stopping, police said.
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Andres was just shy of his 10th birthday.
Andres Martinez was killed in a hit-and-run crash on Friday.
" He didn’t even hit double digits yet, he was an outgoing kid and, I just still don’t believe he’s gone," said Marisol Martinez, Andres’ older sister. "Just the arrest itself, I feel like it’s not enough because he’s gone."
At around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, the Hardee County Sheriff's Office received a call from Gilbert Almaguer saying he was a passenger in the truck that struck Martinez.
Almaguer told police that the car was registered to his mother and located at his residence.
Family members cry as they remember 9-year-old Andres Martinez.
Police say they matched pieces recovered from the crash site to the truck.
Almaguer then spoke with police and said another person was driving the car when the crash occurred.
He told police that after the crash, that individual drove to a set of railroad tracks at East County Line Road and Central Avenue before Almaguer got into the driver's seat and drove to his home.
Almaguer told police that he thought the driver had hit a mailbox or post.
Gilbert Almaguer mugshot courtesy of the Hardee County Sheriff's Office.
Following the interview, Almaguer returned to his home while police obtained a search warrant for the truck.
While police were waiting outside his home for the search warrant, they say Almaguer approached an officer and said he needed to talk to them.
Police say Almaguer confessed to being the driver when the child was hit.
Almaguer said that the kid came out of nowhere and that he did not mean to hit him.
Police say that Almaguer also told them no one else was in the vehicle and that he called the Hardee County Sheriff's office after seeing a post on Facebook that the nine-year-old had died.
Police believe that based on the evidence, there is probable cause to believe that Almaguer is in violation of leaving a scene of a crash on public or private property without rendering aid (involving death), a first-degree felony.