Tips from callers helped Anchorage police track down a driver suspected in a Midtown hit-and-run collision that left a male pedestrian critically injured Wednesday night.
Now, officers are again asking for the public's help, this time to identify the victim.
Police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said in a statement Thursday morning that dispatchers received reports of the collision, near 16th Avenue and A Street, shortly before 9:30 p.m. Medics took the pedestrian to a hospital with severe injuries.
"It was reported to police that the vehicle had left the scene of the collision," Castro wrote. "Alert citizens were able to provide dispatch with the license plate number of the involved vehicle which was a blue 2000 Ford Taurus."
Roughly 20 minutes after the collision, police were able to track the Taurus and found its suspected driver, 19-year-old Danae Kish, at a home on the 1000 block of East 13th Avenue. Kish was arrested for leaving the scene of an injury accident and held at the Anchorage jail.
Police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests on both Kish and the victim.
Kish "provided some of her reasoning or explanations to police" about why she left the scene according to Castro, who declined to discuss what they were due to the ongoing investigation. Although Kish cooperated with field sobriety tests, Castro said it wasn't immediately clear whether she had been driving under the influence.
"That's not something we can figure out right now — that's why the toxicology results are pending," Castro said.
Police are still investigating the collision, Castro said, with little information from or about the victim so far.
"The pedestrian was unconscious in this case, and we have not been able to speak with him," Castro said. "The other part of this is that we don't know who he is."
Castro urged citizens with word on the pedestrian's identity, or anyone who knows someone who was walking last night in the area of the collision but hasn't returned, to call police at 907-786-8900.