A North Carolina father has been charged with murdering the truck driver who struck and killed his son on Monday (August 14) morning.
The family of three was walking home at around 6:30am after running out of petrol, when a Ram pickup truck hit the 17-year-old on Dink Ashley Road near Timberlake.
The truck driver, who was later identified as 39-year-old Jeffrey McKay, stopped at the scene and called 9-1-1 to report that he had struck the unidentified teenager.
Soon after the accident, the teenager's father, 41-year-old Chad Woods, allegedly pulled out a gun and shot McKay.
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According to Person County Sheriff's Office, he then threw the gun in a nearby pond and took McKay's truck and drove it to his home, leaving his son's body on the side of the road.
The teenager was pronounced dead at the scene by attending paramedics.
Woods was later tracked down at his home after his son was identified, where he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and larceny of a motor vehicle.
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“This is kind of a first. I’ve been to people struck by cars and I’ve been to shootings, but I haven’t ever had this happen at the same time. Sad situation all around, for all the families,” Sgt. Kevin Morris, with the sheriff’s office, told WTVD-TV.
Woods' father, Lawrence Clayborn, told ABC11 his son was 'out of it'.
"He was just out of it, going off and stuff. He was going, 'He just he killed my son. He killed my son,'" he said.
The teenager's brother told the outlet: "He was a good person. He was a real good person.
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"[He] wanted to be an IT technician. He was doing, he wanted to be positive in life. He wanted to help people. He was a people person."
Woods is due to face court on August 21.
Keryn Donnelly