Second Victim Dies in Burtonsville Hit and Run
Burtonsvile, Md. - UPDATED - Tuesday August 14, 2007 3:49 pm

When I initially heard of this incident yesterday I had a gut feeling it involved an illegal alien. When will this madness stop? It also appears he may have seriously injured another illegal alien who was a member of the work crew from the interview I saw.

Montgomery County police say the driver of a van who plowed into a group of road workers Monday, killing two of them, and then fled the scene has surrendered to police.

Prince George's County police say 31-year-old Manuel De Jesus Gonzalez-Geronimo of Hyattsville contacted them about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. Prince George's County Police turned Gonzalez-Geronimo over to Montgomery County Police.

Gonzalez-Geronimo reportedly told court officials he is an illegal immigrant and does not have a driver's license.

Gonzalez-Geronimo has been charged with failure to immediately return and remain at the scene of a collision involving death, failure to immediately stop a vehicle at the scene of a collision involving bodily injury, and driving without a license.

He is currently being held on $150,000 bond at the Montgomery County Detention Center.

Investigators believe Gonzalez-Geronimo was driving the van that plowed into five workers Monday afternoon on Route 29 in Burtonsville, near the Howard County line.

The workers were taking a break when the white van careened into another vehicle and then struck them.

Thirty-year-old Martin Ruffin of Baltimore died on the scene. Thirty-seven-year-old James Cronin of Glen Burnie was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore where he died Tuesday afternoon.

Twenty-eight-year-old Hugo Perez, 35-year-old Jose Padillo, and 30-year-old Rafael Ramos, were transported to nearby hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.


http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0807/447122.html