A 22-year-old Maryland man has been charged in connection with a fatal hit-and-run that left a 14-year-old dead in July, according to local reports.
Tyler Mailloux faces 17 charges, including failing to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death, more than nine months after the crash that killed Gavin Knupp.
Worcester County States Attorney Kristen Heiser filed charges against Tyler Allen Mailloux, 22, of Berlin, Maryland, on Friday, which include failure to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failing to return and remain at the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failing to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of an accident involving death, and failing to report the accident within 15 days.
Heiser told Fox News Digital four of the charges are felonies, of which two can carry sentences up to 10 years in prison.
"Something’s finally moving forward, I guess, just a stepping stone. It’s not the final end product," Ray Knupp, Gavin's father, told Fox News Digital.
Knupp was struck by a black Mercedes-Benz after he got out of his sister’s car to look at a taxidermy stag’s head that was on the side of Gray’s Corner Road in Berlin.
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Knupp’s sister, Summer, only saw a dark car speeding away and rushed to her brother’s side, where she attempted CPR and called 911.
"At first, I didn't want to go find his body because I did not want to see him like that. Something switched in me, and I was like, I (got to) go find him," Summer Knupp told WBAL-TV on Thursday before any charges were announced. "If he's (going to) die, I want to be there when he dies. I want to be his last memory."
The only evidence of the vehicle was a driver’s side mirror that broke off near the crash site, the Banner reported.
A week after the crash, state police located and impounded a black Mercedes from a home in Ocean City, Maryland, according to reports. The home belonged to Ralph Deangelus, who lived there with his girlfriend Kearston Frey and her adult son, Mailloux.
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Despite seizing the Mercedes, no charges were immediately filed.
In the following weeks and months, the community banded together to get justice for Knupp and his family by posting signs reading "Justice for Gavin" or "Do it for Gavin" outside shops and restaurants in Ocean City.
Heiser has previously said that the Maryland State Police have two investigators that cover all crashes on the entire Eastern Shore, between the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Ocean City. At the time of her comment, she was speaking to a year-long investigation into a fatal motorcycle crash that occurred during the OC Bikefest weekend in 2021.
After the charges were announced, Knupp family attorney Neil Dubovsky said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital that the charges were "just a step" toward accountability.
"We are immensely grateful to Kris Heiser and her team for the diligence and hard work that led to the filing of these criminal charges against the defendant, Tyler Mailloux," the statement read. "Let there be no confusion - we will not rest until that process is completed, both through this criminal prosecution in addition to pursuing any and all available civil remedies."
