Immediately after the crash, police say Loranger fled the scene and went to Taco Bell.
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Police tracked down Loranger after a Taco Bell employee reported seeing Loranger’s damaged Cadillac in the drive-thru just minutes after Fernandez was struck in a crosswalk.
An hour later, cops arrested him, found crack cocaine in his vehicle and when they told him he had fatally knocked down Fernandez, he asked officers: ‘Why wasn’t I told this?’
First responders found Fernandez lying in the road and suffering from critical injuries. He was taken to hospital but died a short time later.
Loranger has pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter.
He was later taken to the hospital for injuries he sustained in the crash.
Cops later found Loranger at his Springfield home, according to the newspaper. Crack cocaine was also found inside a pill bottle, the Republican reported. Speaking to police at Baystate Medical Center, Loranger repeatedly said the damage to his vehicle was caused by items falling from a box truck, not a collision with a pedestrian, the report said.
He then fell asleep during the interview, a report suggests.
Surveillance video shows the vehicle driven by Loranger pulling into the drive-thru lane of the Springfield restaurant after the accident took place. After finding hair, blood and body tissue embedded in the windshield of his vehicle, officers arrested him and held him over the weekend, the report said.
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Loranger is being charged with leaving the scene of an injury accident, motor vehicle homicide, operating under the influence of liquor, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Loranger was driving his 2013 Cadillac while under the influence of alcohol and thought he hit a cardboard box before police found Loranger and informed him that he had struck and killed a person.
