The Little Rock jogger struck by a vehicle near his midtown residence died late Tuesday, according to police.
Barry Livingston, 76, was pronounced dead at a hospital by the state medical examiner, according to Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen, just a day after Livingston was found lying in a roadside patch of grass near his home.
According to police reports, Taylor Moore was out for a run shortly after 6 a.m. Monday when he came across Livingston, who was lying near the west curb line of the 100 block of North Hughes Street.
Moore told police that he initially thought the older man had passed out, but he eventually called police, who noted that Livingston had suffered a head injury as well as a broken leg when he was hit by a vehicle, the reports said.
Crash investigators said Livingston was struck near the intersection of Amherst Cove and North Hughes Street, just a few blocks from his Auburn Drive home.
Officers also noted that there were no streetlights in that area, and that they had found Livingston's earphones in the grass.
Allen said that it was not clear what direction Livingston was running, nor was it clear what direction the vehicle that hit him was headed.
There are no police cameras close to the scene, according to Allen, and without surveillance footage or a witness to the crash, investigators are searching for other clues to the fatality.
Monday and Tuesday, the department fielded several phone calls from the public after asking for help from anyone with information about vehicles driven in the area that morning.
But so far, Allen said, none of those calls have yielded leads, and officers still do not have a vehicle description or suspect.
When asked what charges the driver might face in Livingston's death, Allen said it could range from misdemeanor negligent homicide to manslaughter.
For Livingston's death to be treated as a homicide, prosecutors would have to prove that the driver intended to kill Livingston.
For now, the department's hit-and-run specialists are working on the case, but Allen said Livingston's death will raise the stakes of their work.
"It was already a high priority to try and catch the person who did it. [Livingston's death] just adds more urgency for people to talk to friends ... to speak up," Allen said. "There's probably someone out there talking about it right now. ... We need someone to come forward."
Metro on 07/24/2014