Sergeant Suicide, 2016 Eastchester Hit-And-Run Related: State Police

EASTCHESTER, NY — State Police have determined who was responsible for a hit-and-run accident in the Town of Eastchester in August 2016. The investigation found that Eastchester Police Sergeant Richard Morris, 61, who committed suicide three days after the accident, had been drinking while off duty and struck the pedestrian and then fled the scene.

Police said the accident, which happened around 9:30 p.m. August 21, 2016, occurred on White Plains Post Road in Eastchester and injured Irene Macchia, 73.

She sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

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At the time, the preliminary investigation revealed a dark-colored pickup truck was traveling northbound, when it struck Macchia, who was trying to cross the road in an easterly direction.

Immediately after the collision, the vehicle fled the scene at a high rate of speed.

Three days later on August 24, 206, Morris was found dead, in an apparent suicide, in Valhalla’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery in the Town of Mount Pleasant.

On August 25, 2016, at the request of the Eastchester Police Department, the State Police assumed the investigation.

It determined that Morris was driving his personally owned Dodge Ram truck, after having consumed alcoholic beverages, struck Macchia and fled the scene.

Image via Shutterstock.