HOUSTON – A 25-year-old man has been arrested and charged with suspicion of failing to stop and render aid in a fatal crash earlier this year.
The suspect, Emmanuel Salgado, is being held in Harris County Jail.
Police have been searching for the driver responsible for the fatal accident for nearly a year.
It's been a long 11 months for the family of Michael Hill, whose friends called Alex.
Now, they say they are getting some relief knowing police have a person behind bars in connection with the crime.
Hill was hit and killed while walking across Westheimer Road at Taft late at night on Jan. 8. Houston police said Salgado ran a red light and left the scene of the crash.
Hill, 21, was new to Houston. He had just relocated a few months ago from South Carolina. His close friend Landon Chapman said the young man was liked by everyone he met.
"He always had a smile on his face. He would find something in common with everyone and just make them feel loved," Chapman said.
Chapman said his friends got a text message from Hill at 12:17 a.m. on Jan. 8 and Hill wrote: "I'm walking over now, be there in 10."
That was the last anyone heard from him.
Investigators said the crash happened around 12:30 a.m. and witnesses said the car involved was dark in color.
"One of our friends was reading an article about it and there was a picture of a shoe. There was shoe in it and he instantly recognized it as Alex's shoe and that's when it really sunk in and we knew it was him," Chapman said. "I think it's horrible and just for the family to have closure and I think it's very important that we do everything we can to find who did it and to the person who did it how horrible of a human being do you have to be to hit somebody and keep going."
Salgado is facing a felony charge of leaving the scene of the accident.
"He hid his crime on purpose," said Michael Hill, Alex's dad, who spoke to KPRC from his home in South Carolina.
Alex had just moved to Houston when he was hit and killed while crossing Westheimer Road at Taft Street last January.
Several days later, police made an arrest, but later dropped the charges, saying they had the wrong guy.
Then this past spring, Hill's family says police got another tip.
"A lady called in and gives them a tip that so-and-so did it," Michael Hill said.
He said police investigated her claims and finally got enough evidence to charge Salgado.
His bail has been set at $30,000.