Highland man arrested in hit-and-run that killed 11-year-old girl

About one week after a vehicle struck and killed an 11-year-old girl in Highland before the driver sped off, authorities announced Tuesday they had arrested the man who investigators believe was behind the wheel.

Deputies arrested Brian Petit, 40, after interviewing him and searching his Highland home in the 7400 block of Fire Oak Drive, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

Inside the suspect’s garage, investigators found a vehicle that had damage consistent with the fatal collision, the department said.

The 11-year-old Annika Raylee Fullerton of Denver was walking along Church Street when she was hit by a vehicle on June 29, authorities said.

Colorado TV station CBS/4 reported that Annika was vacationing with her family and had been walking with her cousins when she was hit.

The driver of the vehicle, described as a light-colored, possibly silver minivan or crossover SUV, drove away, spurring a search for the driver.

The following day, a makeshift memorial sprung up at the site of her death, mourners leaving flowers, candles, balloons, photos of Annika, and notes written on cardboard and paper or scrawled on the sidewalk in chalk.

One note was typed as a letter to the hit-and-run driver:

“Tuesday morning our family woke up to a alternate reality, the one where unconscionable people kill little girls in the street and don’t even brake, the one where dreams of graduations and weddings and grandchildren get smashed … How did you wake up Tuesday morning?”

Another note, written on a large black poster and signed by Annika’s family, expressed gratitude to the Highland community for their “strength” and “prayers” which “has been a true gift.”

Over the next week, deputies said they gathered enough information to serve a search warrant on Petit’s home, leading to his arrest.

It was not immediately clear what led investigators toward Petit.

Petit was booked Tuesday on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run, causing injury or death. He was held at the Central Detention Center where he remained Tuesday evening in lieu of $250,000, according to count jail records.

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