Man killed by hit-and-run driver in Ceres last week identified as Modesto resident
The Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office has identified the pedestrian killed last week by a hit-and-run driver in Ceres as a Modesto resident.
The office reported the pedestrian was 44-year-old Michael Tucker.
Ceres police have said the driver of a tractor-trailer rig struck and killed Tucker about 3 a.m. Thursday in the 1400 block of East Hatch Road, several hundred feet east of Highway 99. He died at the scene.
Witnesses reported the big-rig driver stopped and got out of his truck to check on the man before getting back behind the wheel and driving away, east on Hatch Road.
“Please come forward,” Tucker’s brother, Don, said Monday about anyone with information about the hit-and-run. “Or better yet, the driver come forward. If it was an accident, it was an accident. ... We just want answers.”
Police believe the tractor is red, with a gray or silver box trailer, according to a news release issued last week. The release said officers were working to identify the driver and his vehicle.
A police spokesman said there were no updates Monday and asked anyone with information to contact Officer Aaron Pinon at 209-538-5678 or aaron.pinon@ci.ceres.ca.us.
Don Tucker, 46, said his brother lived with him and their mother in southwest Modesto, just a few blocks from where he died. He said it was not unusual for his brother to go for an early morning walk or bicycle ride.
Tucker said his brother was complicated and had his struggles with drugs but also was creative and funny. “He liked to stay to himself a lot of the time,” Tucker said. “But if you needed him, he was always there.”
Tucker said that in the last month, his brother was trying to turn his life around and was seeing a counselor. “He was doing right,” Tucker said.
He said his brother was divorced and had a 26-year-old son who died nearly two years ago in a car accident in Tracy and a 23-year-old daughter who lives in the Bay Area.
