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PD Sergeant Who Committed Suicide Was Motorist In Hit-Run Route 22 Crash

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. -- More than eight months after a hit-and-run accident left an elderly woman seriously injured in Eastchester, state police identified the motorist responsible as an off-duty local police sergeant who committed suicide three days after the incident last summer.

Eastchester Police Sergeant Richard Morris committed suicide Aug. 24, 2016, three days after state police said he fled the scene of a hit-and-run crash on Route 22.

Eastchester Police Sergeant Richard Morris committed suicide Aug. 24, 2016, three days after state police said he fled the scene of a hit-and-run crash on Route 22.

Photo Credit: Contributed

State police announced the results of their months-long investigation Saturday morning.

At about 9:28 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2016,  the Eastchester Police Department responded to investigate a hit-and-run automobile/pedestrian collision which occurred on White Plains Post Road (Route 22) in Eastchester.

The victim, identified as 73-year-old Irene Macchia, was transported to Westchester Medical Center as the result of serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

Preliminary investigation by state police revealed a dark-colored pickup truck was traveling northbound, when it struck the pedestrian, who was attempting to cross the road while heading east. Immediately following the collision, the vehicle fled the scene at a high rate of speed, state police said.

Three days later, on Aug. 24, 2016, Eastchester Police Sergeant Richard Morris, 61, was found dead as the result of suicide within Valhalla's Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Mount Pleasant.

On Aug. 25, 2016, at the request of the Eastchester Police Department, the state police, in conjunction with the Eastchester Police Department, assumed the investigation.

The ensuing state police investigation determined Morris, while off duty and after having consumed alcoholic beverages, was operating his personally owned Dodge Ram truck, when he struck the pedestrian and then left the scene of the collision.  

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