Police arrest man after pedestrian killed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - UPDATE: Police have arrested 39-year-old Mesfin Abebe after he allegedly hit and killed a 62-year-old pedestrian Saturday afternoon. Abebe is charged with homicide by vehicle and failure to yield to a pedestrian. The victim has been identified as 62-year-old Randal Espey from Suwanee, officials confirmed to Atlanta News First.

“My condolences to that family. That’s just awful,” said Wendy Creary, picking-up traveler. “It’s just awful that would happen,” she said.

One man who was coming from Philadelphia said he had seen heavy traffic Sunday night when he was picked up.

“This amount of traffic coming through, especially if you don’t know your way around. I was struggling to get over here. I could easily walk out into the wrong place. It’s tragic,” said John Williams, a traveler.

Creary said with increased traffic as people are traveling back on Memorial Day, she’s encouraging everyone to be safe.

“Use caution. You know, the airport can be confusing. I mean it’s a big circle, so use caution and sometimes you might have to circle back around rather than do something to you know, jeopardize somebody’s life. So, it’s better to be safe than to be sorry,” Creary said.

Airport officials said this accident caused minimum impacts to their operations on Saturday.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A 62-year-old pedestrian has died after being struck by a vehicle on the Lower South Roadway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Saturday morning.

According to Atlanta police, the accident involved multiple vehicles, and the victim who was transported to the hospital by ambulance but died from his injuries.

Police said, all involved vehicles and parties remained on the scene, and no other serious injuries were reported.

Copyright 2023 WANF. All rights reserved.