FLAGLER ESTATES, Fla. – Residents in the Flagler Estates community are breathing a sigh of relief after an arrest was made in connection with a hit-and-run that left a teen seriously injured.
On Tuesday, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 46-year-old Andrew Robinson.
Robinson was arrested in connection with the hit and run of 14-year-old Maslin Mooney and is being held on a felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury.
According to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, Mooney was walking on Palatka Boulevard near Carpenter Avenue the morning of Jan. 10 when he was hit by a car.
It was 45 minutes before someone saw him lying on the ground.
Then he was flown to the hospital where he was placed in ICU. He had two broken legs, a broken wrist, and a brain bleed.
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News4JAX spoke with people in the Flagler Estates community Wednesday about the arrest of Robinson.
“It’s a relief, big relief, we were really happy to hear it,” Jeff Weinstein said.
Weinstein lives down the road from where the 14-year-old was hit.
He said the morning it happened, he and others who live nearby were in disbelief, and, as a father, he couldn’t believe a child had to go through something like this.
“I walk my daughter to the bus stop every morning, she’s 15,” Weinstein said. “And even though she’s obviously old enough to walk and it’s just to the end of the street, which is exactly where this young man was hit…Now she understands why I walk her to the end of the street.”
The most recent update on Mooney was provided by his church, First Baptist Church of Hastings, saying he is no longer in ICU and was scheduled to be placed in a rehab facility soon.
Weinstein said he feels safer knowing Robinson is locked up and that Mooney’s family can begin the process of getting justice.
News4JAX did reach out to a woman listed as Robinson’s wife online. She said she had no comment on the matter.
We also reached out to First Baptist Church of Hastings for a comment on this story and we’re waiting to hear back from them as well.
