Pittsfield Police Used Surveillance Footage to Trace Path of Fatal Hit & Run
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Police used a combination of on-scene investigation and community surveillance footage to find a suspect in the hit-and-run that killed 69-year-old William Colbert last week.
William Gross, 65, was arraigned in Central Berkshire District Court on Wednesday for negligent motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene on Feb. 10. He was arrested Monday after police investigators narrowed down the type of car seen on video at the accident scene.
District Attorney Timothy Shugrue said it was "pretty incredible" that the case was solved in less than a week. Residents and businesses provided surveillance footage along the nearly four-mile stretch between where Colbert was struck and where his body was found, including McDonald's, Crawford's Service, J Smegal, and Thing or Two Variety.
"They wanted to solve this. It was personal to everybody, and so they put their time and energy and effort into it, and I'm so proud that they did it," Shugrue said after Gross's arraignment on Wednesday.
"Because we always get worried. We're so close to New York. What if he got over that border? What if he lived in New York? But we were looking for vehicles in New York as well."
Police say Colbert had fallen in the road at the Francis Avenue and Linden Street intersection on Feb. 10 before he was struck and dragged nearly four miles. His body was found on West Housatonic Street.
Gross is being held on $250,000 cash bail in the Berkshire County House of Corrections. Shugrue said the case will go to a grand jury and foresees additional charges being placed.
The DA reported that he used to play high school football with Colbert's brother, and that his office has been in "constant" communication with the family.
"They're devastated," he said. "It's their brother. It's their older brother, and he's deceased, and in such an awful way."
Officer Anthony Dayton provided a six-page report of the tragic incident. He and six other officers' narratives are included in court documents; Officer Mason Papirio was the first on the scene around 11:55 p.m.
According to police reports:
The investigation began by tracing evidence of the hit-and-run from 1350 West Housatonic St., where a Berkshire Medical Center employee discovered Colbert's body in the road, to the intersection of Betnr Industrial Drive.
Police then drove the most likely path to the intersection of Francis Avenue and Linden Street, where Colbert was struck, following South Merriam and Merriam Street to West Street, to Onota Street, and down Linden Street.
The next day, on Feb. 11, police spent hours going to residences and businesses in the car's suspected route to search for evidence. Members of the Traffic Unit, the Detective Bureau, Crime Scene Services Unit, and patrol officers reviewed and collected video footage over the following days.
While Dayton was reviewing a video from the Linden Street Laundromat, he saw a blue coupe that resembled a Honda Civic. It was entering the Linden Street and Francis Avenue intersection around 11:36 p.m.
The good Samaritan's 911 call for Colbert's assistance after he had fallen in the road, before he was hit, came in at 11:33 p.m.
Footage from St. Mark's Church on West Street shows the car taking a right turn from Onota Street onto West Street and taking a left onto Merriam Street at 11:37, pushing a "human-sized object" at the base of its front bumper. Dayton observed that the passenger side taillight was dimmer than the driver's side taillight.
Surveillance footage showed the vehicle in the same conditions then traveling down South Merriam Street, and around 11:40 p.m., the front of the vehicle was clear in footage from McDonald's on West Housatonic Street. Police say it was likely that the victim was underneath the vehicle at that point.
Around 11:43 p.m., footage from a West Housatonic Street residence showed the same coupe traveling westbound, slowing down and stopping in front of the Best Western, reversing with the front driver's corner lifting in the air, and driving around what was later identified as Colbert's body.
Police searched through registered Honda Civics in Pittsfield, Hancock, and Richmond, and on Monday, Feb. 16, located a car matching that description with Massachusetts plates on Lebanon Mountain Road in Hancock. It was parked and unoccupied in the driveway of a home, which police approached around 2 p.m.
Minor damage was observed on the vehicle's front bumper. A search warrant was granted on that day, and the next morning, the car was in the Police Department garage, where investigators found traces of blood on the vehicle.
In the police interview room, Gross informed officers that he had taken 20 milligrams of prescribed Xanax, and he was transported to Berkshire Medical Center. His arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday, was pushed to Wednesday.
According to the police report, Gross told police he didn't know what was in front of his car, and that he stopped and backed up just before the Best Western. He said he did not see Colbert in the road and "was freaking out at the time" and "didn't know what to do," and drove home.
"This is very, very difficult work, and these people, men and women, put their lives online and put their lives on hold and worked 24/7 to resolve this," the DA said on Wednesday.
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