Police searching for driver who backed into woman at a Bluffton gas station, then drove away
Officers are searching for a Hardeeville man who struck a woman with his car Thursday morning at a Bluffton gas station, according to the Bluffton Police Department.
Police believe Aurelio Villa-Martinez hit the woman when he was reversing his car at Nickel Pumpers on Bruin Road.
A police report said Villa-Martinez is seen on surveillance footage exiting the store, getting into a green Ford pickup truck, backing into the woman and her white Nissan — pinning her between the vehicles — then leaving the scene.
“The driver did not offer or attempt to render aid to the victim and did not call emergency officials,” the report said.
The woman was seriously injured, Bluffton Police spokesperson Capt. Joe Babkiewicz said.
Later, while police were still on the scene, the pickup truck returned with a woman driving it.
She told police her boyfriend called her and “told her he had done something very bad at the Nickel Pumper gas station” and that he’d leave her truck at another close-by gas station so she could pick it up, the report said.
The woman provided officers insurance and other paperwork for the truck, which listed Villa-Martinez as an insured driver.
Police obtained an arrest warrant for Villa-Martinez for leaving the scene of a collision with great bodily injury, the report said.
Villa-Martinez has been charged with driving without a license at least twice in the past few years, according to Beaufort County court documents.
Anyone with information on Villa-Martinez’s whereabouts should call 911.
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 10:05 AM.
