What to Know
- The suspect in a Memorial Day Weekend hit-and-run in Wildwood surrendered to police on Tuesday.
- Dalton Storms, 21, is accused of aggravated assault, leaving the scene and other counts in the crash that injured a 56-year-old woman.
- The victim suffered multiple broken bones and a bruised hip but ws
A man accused of running a woman over and fleeing the scene following a Memorial Day Weekend fender bender at the Jersey Shore is now in custody.
Dalton Storms, 21, turned himself in on Tuesday, Wildwood police said.
The initial incident occurred on May 24. Police responded to a crash along Rio Grande Avenue near Park Boulevard around 9:50 p.m.
When officers arrived they found 56-year-old Joanne Manuli, of Villas, New Jersey, injured on the street.
Witnesses told police Manuli was stopped in traffic while heading east on Rio Grande when a white sports car rear-ended her car. Manuli got out of her vehicle and into a verbal altercation with the other driver, police said.
The sports car driver, later identified by police as Storms, attempted to drive off, but Manuli stepped in front of his car.
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“The driver of the sports car proceeded slowly for several feet, pushing the victim backwards, before quickly accelerating,” police wrote on Facebook. “The victim was ultimately pulled under the sports car and run over by at least one of the vehicle’s tires as the sports car fled from the scene.”
Manuli was flown to an Atlantic City hospital for treatment for multiple broken bones and a bruised hip, police said in the post and in an affidavit of probable cause. She has since been released from the hospital and had a message for the hit-and-run driver when she spoke to NBC10 Monday.
"Hello, you cut off my livelihood," she said. "You gonna pay my bills? You gonna put food in my mouth? You gonna get me a place to live?"
Investigators eventually zeroed in on a white Dodge Challenger registered to Storms after talking to witnesses and looking at surveillance footage from the scene, police said.
Police found the car at Storms’ Franklinville, New Jersey, home. A court-authorized search of the car turned up clues linked to the hit-and-run, police said.
Storms is charged with aggravated assault, leaving the scene of a crash and endangerment. It is unclear if he has an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
