Bibb cops narrow search for SUV in fatal hit-and-run

Parts knocked off an SUV that struck and killed a Macon man Sunday night have helped investigators identify the vehicle’s make and model.

Bibb County sheriff’s officials think a black 2007 Cadillac Escalade bearing a Florida license plate slammed into Antonial T. White, 38, on Pio Nono Avenue not long after sunset on Sunday.

White was said to have been in the road, a block south of Anthony Road, tending to a hurt dog. The northbound SUV that hit him didn’t stop.

Pieces laden with serial numbers from the Cadillac, including a plastic part from a wheel well and a chrome strip from a grille, gave investigators the clues they needed to identify the SUV.

Cpl. Austin Riley, a fatality investigator with the sheriff’s office, said Friday that witnesses think only one person was in the SUV when it struck White.

No one who spoke to investigators could tell whether the driver was a man or a woman.

Riley said it is likely that whoever was driving the Cadillac remains in the area and has since stopped driving it due to heavy front-end damage and to hide it from authorities.

“I don’t know if they’re local or not,” Riley said of the driver. “We know that they’re possibly here now.”

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397 or follow him on Twitter@joekovacjr.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Bibb cops narrow search for SUV in fatal hit-and-run ."