US citizen arrested in Guatemala in fatal hit-and-run

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan authorities say a 25-year-old U.S. citizen accused of driving into a crowd of protesting students killing one and injuring more than a dozen others is in custody.

The students were protesting a shortage of teachers at their school Wednesday when a car plowed into them and then fled. The damaged car was found later abandoned at a parking lot. Inside investigators found a residential access card in the suspect’s name and the car was registered to his father, an evangelical pastor.

Mayra Veliz, secretary general of the Public Ministry, said Saturday in a news conference that the suspect drove over the victims and then accelerated and drove away.

Roosevelt Hospital had announced earlier Saturday that one of the victims, a 15-year-old girl, had died from her injuries.