Mechanic struck, killed in hit-and-run
• Driver held on $100,000 bond for fleeing the scene

Vaughn Christian Walker

  Article and photo contributed by The Journal Record  

By SCOTT JOHNSON
News Editor

Twin - A mechanic was killed in a hit-and-run incident on Tuesday, April 30, while repairing a disabled vehicle on the shoulder of Interstate 22 in Marion County.According to Alabama State Trooper-Hamilton Post Cpl. Mark Stone, at approximately 5 a.m., repairman Morris H. Welch Jr., 56, Empire, was killed when a 2019 Freightliner struck him while he was working on a vehicle near I-22’s mile marker 25.

Welch was an employee of M&M Tire and Mechanical Services in Graysville.

Stone said that the vehicle that struck Welch left the scene and was later located by an Alabama State Trooper. Vaughn Christian Walker, 24, Marrero, La., was arrested by troopers following the incident.
Walker is being held in the Marion County Jail in Hamilton and is being charged with felony leaving the scene of an accident with fatalities. His bond is set at $100,000.

Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams told the Journal Record that Walker was found and arrested by troopers while parked at Jasper’s Love’s Travel Stop. The troopers transported Walker back to Marion County where he remains in custody.

The Alabama State Troopers are investigating the incident, Stone said, and no further information was available.

Michael E. Palmer/staff
Traffic can be seen backed up on Tuesday morning, April 30, as Alabama State Troopers closed both eastbound lanes on Interstate 22 near Twin for several hours while providing support in a hit-and-run incident, which left a mechanic dead.