HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — The father of a teenager killed by a hit and run driver wants to know who left his daughter to die on the side of the road. The collision killed Tasia Gartner, 16. It was captured on video.
Police arrested 19-year-old Robert Huynh late Wednesday and charged him with hit-and-run of a pedestrian.
"I just don't get it man," said Clay Ragsdale, Tasia's custodial father. He has seen the video of his daughter's last moments alive.
"That car that hit her, it never hit brakes. She deserves more than what she got," he said.
Ragsdale still can't understand how someone could hit Tasia as she attempted to cross Highway 81 East near McDonough and keep going.
"I don't understand how someone just left our girl in a ditch," he said, fighting back tears. "All you had to do was stop."
Henry County police say Tasia and a friend tried to cross the highway around 9:30 Monday night. Video from a nearby business shows Tasia's friend make it across first. Then Tasia attempts to run across. She doesn't see a fast-moving car in the westbound lane.
The car hits her and keeps going.
Police said auto repair experts examined pieces of the car left at the scene and determined it was a 2007 or 2008 Honda Fit and either silver or gray.
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"We believe there might be significant damage to the grill, the front of the vehicle, the hood and possibly the roof," Ireland said.
"You know when you hit something," Ragsdale said.
The heartbroken father said Tasia was the light of his life as well as Lisa Miller's, her custodial mother. It would make the family happy to see the driver who hit her and kept going in custody.
"I just say turn yourself in. Answer for what's happened," Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale and Miller gained custody of Tasia after her biological mother died and her father went to prison.
The video only shows a silhouette of the car that hit Tasia. Police found around 200 Honda Fits that fit the description in the region. They checked everyone to see if it had damage or had been recently repaired.
The family has started a GoFundMe account to help pay for funeral expenses.