Police arrest man accused of striking woman, dragging body
May 14, 2022, 3:32 PM | Updated: 3:39 pm
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A man suspected in a fatal hit-in-run in central California in which the victim’s body was dragged more than 8 miles (13 kilometers) was in critical condition after jumping from a three-story house while deputies tried to arrest him, authorities said.
Fresno Police Lt. Brian Valles told the Fresno Bee that 38-year-old Shawn Ginder was arrested by the Madera County Sheriff’s Office late Friday.
Valles said Ginder jumped out of the three-story house in Bass Lake, a town about 50 miles ( 80 kilometers) northeast of Fresno, the site of Friday’s hit-and-run, and was taken to a hospital where he was listed in critical condition.
The Fresno Police Department said in a social media post that the suspect the hit-and-run was in the custody of the Madera County Sheriff’s Office but gave no information. A dispatcher at the Sheriff’s Office referred all questions to the Fresno Police Department, which didn’t immediately answer messages seeking comment Saturday.
The victim in the hit-and-run was a 29-year-old woman who was pushing a shopping cart and had her dog on a leash when she was hit by a silver pickup truck at the intersection of Herndon and Millburn in Fresno, police said. The driver of the truck didn’t stop and dragged the woman’s body several miles to a hotel parking lot.
At the hotel, the driver parked the truck, got out and went to the lobby to ask for a room, Fresno police said Friday. When the man was told there was no vacancy, he left and was pulling back in his truck when another hotel guest saw the woman’s partial remains dislodge from under the pickup truck and called police.
Hours after the woman was found dead, officers located Ginder’s heavily damaged pickup truck at an apartment complex in Fresno where Ginder lives, Valles said. Later Friday, deputies with the Madera County Sheriff’s Office found Ginder at the home in Bass Lake.
Police said the woman has been identified and was believed to be homeless but that her name won’t be released at this time out of respect for her and her loved ones.
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