Sheriff’s officials on Tuesday, Oct. 6, were still searching for the whereabouts of a driver who struck and killed a pedestrian walking on the shoulder of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Sunday night, Oct. 4.
The pedestrian, later identified as 58-year-old Malibuite Michael Bennett, died on scene after he was fatally struck by a vehicle just after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Bennett was a Malibu resident and attorney. According to the State Bar of California website, Michael Richard Bennett was an alumnus of the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Vir., and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1987. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina, according to justia.com, and practiced law in Santa Monica. Bennett was killed nine days before his 59th birthday.
On Sunday night, Lt. Evans of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station described the suspect’s vehicle as a “dark-colored sedan” that “fled the scene” heading westbound after striking the pedestrian.
As of Tuesday, Oct. 6, the LA County Sheriff’s Department had not taken any suspects into custody for the hit and run collision, although sheriff’s investigators did recover a vehicle matching the description of the one involved in the incident later on Sunday in the parking lot of the Whole Foods in the Park shopping center in the Malibu Civic Center. Sgt. Kelly, a traffic investigator with the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, noted that the vehicle had been reported stolen and that LASD took it into its custody upon its discovery.
Bennett was reportedly walking westbound along Pacific Coast Highway near the intersection of PCH and Las Flores Canyon Road at the time of the vehicle versus pedestrian collision.
“He was not in a crosswalk—he was walking along the side of the road,” Kelly clarified. “He was not in a lane of traffic; he was between the fog line and the curb line.”
Anyone with information about the collision or the suspected driver is asked to call the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 818.878.1808 and ask to speak to a traffic investigator.