Police look for suspect who fled deadly Lodge freeway crash

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A driver slammed into a van killing a man and mangling the vehicle on the Lodge freeway Tuesday night.

But instead of staying at the scene the driver took off - now that person is still on the run.

Spending his life helping others, longtime Detroit pastor Arthur Barnes tries his best to forgive the people who hit and killed his friend, leaving him there.

"People do wrong but you don't have to continue," he said. "I don't feel anger. I don't feel angry at all because God got me here to help every person.  I help the ones who have done me wrong."

Barnes says Tuesday night he and his friend, 54-year-old Roman, were driving on the Lodge near Seven Mile when the mattress they were carrying on top of his van became loose. Barnes says they stopped on the shoulder to secure it.

"I don't know where this car came from," Barnes said. "This car came swerving around all of the other cars."

Michigan State Police say the driver of the Dodge Charger was speeding with three other passengers inside.

"It missed me but it hit him and it knocked him up into the ...," Barnes said. "I loved that man, I tried to help him."

Barnes said that Roman was like a son to him. Barnes watched in disbelief as one passenger waited and the driver and two others ran away.  They left Roman to die.

"It's really terrible," he said. "At least a person should check on the one they hit, because that's a life."

Police arrived to help, arresting one passenger who stayed on drug charges. Barnes says one officer offered overwhelming support.

"He came back and prayed with me," he said. "I Thank god for the policeman."

Praying for Roman, Barnes says he had taken him in three years ago.  Roman, spending time in prison, Barnes says, had turned his life around. He was now doing work for Barnes and ready to start a new job as a truck driver in just two weeks.

"If this hadn't happened to him, I believe his life would've been changed," Barnes said.

As police work to catch that driver who is believed to have suffered facial injuries and two other passengers - one who injured their arm, Barnes is left without his friend.

Now he is asking them to please, turn themselves in.

"He can make it right. He can make it right."

Right now police are asking for your help. If you have any information on this hit and run or think you may have witnessed it, you're asked to please call Michigan State Police (248) 584-5740.