Merokean arrested in fatal hit-and-run

A Merrick motorist did not stop after hitting and killing a pedestrian on the night of July 4 on Sunrise Highway in Freeport, the Nassau County Police Department reported.

Stephanie Beeker, 66, of Van Roo Avenue, was driving east in a gray Nissan Altima at 11 p.m. and struck a man walking across Sunrise Highway, west of Buffalo Avenue, according to police. She continued driving without stopping, police said. An ambulance rushed the man, whose name police did not release, to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was pronounced dead at 11:32 p.m.

One hour later, police arrested Beeker in Baldwin. She faces a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with death. A spokesman for the Nassau County district attorney’s office said that Nassau’s Legal Aid Society represented Beeker at her arraignment on July 5 at First District Court in Hempstead. Legal Aid does not comment on cases.

The D.A. spokesman said Beeker was due back in court Wednesday, after press time.