Red Light Cameras Nab Hit and Run Suspect

An often criticized piece of crime solving technology helped Rochester Police in an unexpected way this week, by helping to track down the suspect in a deadly hit and run.
 Police say 22-year-old Daniel Garver of Irondequoit sped through a nearby intersection Monday night, activating a red light traffic camera.
 
Tina Shively is here to explain how it all unfolded.
 
37-year-old Harry Andrews was standing on the side of the road on north goodman street late Monday night putting gas into an SUV. That's when police say he was struck by a car, and killed. The driver fled the scene.
 
Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard said "You would hope that somebody would stop and get out of the vehicle and that if people brought it to their attention they'd standby until the police got there and were able to investigate what happened."
 
That's not what happened. Police say the car drove away and there were no witnesses. However, an unlikely "eye in the sky" did help track down the man they believe ran over the father of 2.
 
Investigators at the scene found a passenger side rear view mirror from a Ford car. They also realized the nearby intersection had a red light camera. So they pulled the pictures, and found what they were looking for. A Ford with a missing mirror, speeding through the intersection and activating the camera, just moments after Andrews was run over.
 
Sheppard added "Without the technology we wouldn't have been in a place where we were able to find that vehicle...there was some evidence left at the scene. However, the license plate was not. The vehicle was damaged, however if someone took their car to a repair shop and got it fixed we wouldn't have known what had occured." 

Officers ran the license plate of the car in the pictures and found the owner lived here in this Irondequoit home. They then found the car with the missing mirror, parked right in the driveway.
 
Officers found Daniel Garver inside the house. They questioned him about not the only missing mirror, but missing license plates, and a cracked windshield. He told police the car was sideswiped.
 
Sheppard says the damage was much more severe.
 
"If you have seen the damage to the windshield its very obvious that something was struck. There's significant damage to the vehicle there could be no mistake that something was hit." 

Police did not question Garver until more than 48 hours after the hit and run.
 
That's past the time period for a viable drug or alcohol test, so they were not taken.
 
Garver is due back in court on March 13.