July 29, 2009

AUGUSTA, Ga-- The Richmond County Sheriff's Office confirms to News 12 they have identified and arrested the driver that hit 25-year-old Shannon Mathis and her sister Tuesday night, killing Mathis.

62-year-old Willie David Bragg Jr. was arrested in Sylvania, Georgia around 2:45 this afternoon. Deputies say the driver was in the process of moving from the Bennock Mill Road area to Sylvania, and he was arrested at his new address there.

They say the Screven County Sheriff's Office also recovered the truck that the man was driving when he hit Mathis and her sister on Bennock Mill Road last night around 9:30. Investigators say the truck is a 2000 Nissan Frontier, white in color with a white camper shell.

Cpl Danny Whitehead with RCSO says Bragg has a previous DUI arrest in Richmond County in 2008, and that alcohol may be a factor in the hit and run crash.

The Sheriff's Office says they interviewed a witness to the collision after lunch today. He was helping the suspect move and deputies believe he saw the accident unfold. They say his information led them to the suspect and the truck in Sylvania. He's been released, but the Sheriff's Office says they have not ruled out charges in his case, because he withheld information last night.

Deputies confirm Bragg was a neighbor of both victims. He lived on the 900 block of Horseshoe Road, right around the corner from the deadly crash.

Bragg is facing numerous charges according to deputies including felony hit and run, vehicular homicide, failure to maintain lane and other traffic charges as well.

Stay with wrdw.com and News 12 for the latest on this developing story and tonight, on News 12 at 6 o'clock, hear from the mother of the two girls that were struck.