Driver sought in hit-and-run fatality

Staff report

LEAVITTSBURG

Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers continued to investigate leads late into the evening Friday into the identity of the hit-and-run driver who killed a 19-year-old University of Akron freshman on Center of the World South Road early Friday.

“We have some tips and leads and are checking them out right now,” Sgt. Jeffrey Klem of the Southington post said about 8 p.m.

Luke Macaluso recently had completed his freshman year of college and was home for the summer, friends said.

Macaluso, 19, and his girlfriend, Brittany Russell, 18, of Warren, were walking south when the accident occurred. The two were walking toward Macaluso’s home a few hundred yards south of the accident site, which is just south of state Route 5 in Braceville Township, about a mile east of the Ohio Turnpike.

The 12:55 a.m. accident tossed Macaluso, who was struck from behind, to the side of the road near a railroad crossing. Russell was not injured.

A 2009 LaBrae High School graduate, Macaluso enjoyed weightlifting and was a lineman on the LaBrae High School football team, earning all-league honors his junior and senior years.

“Luke was an honest-to-goodness good kid. I don’t think he even smoked a cigarette,” Thomas Johnson, a friend of Macaluso’s, said Friday afternoon at the accident scene, where friends had placed a decorated cross.

“Luke was one of those kids who any mom would be proud of. He wasn’t a stay-at-home kid,” Johnson continued. “He had all kinds of fun, but he managed to have fun and stay out of trouble.

“He was the kind of dude who would give you the shirt off of his back, and that’s the genuine truth.”

Russell’s sister, Tabbatha Bowker, who also was visiting the accident scene, pointed to a matted-down area of grass about 15 feet from the road, indicating that as the location where his body was tossed after he was hit.

“He was a good, hard worker,” Bowker said of Macaluso, who was working in construction this summer while living at home on summer break.

Macaluso’s MySpace page on the Internet said he liked working out, football, writing and artistic pursuits such as drawing and painting.

After hitting Macaluso, the car fled the scene, according to the state patrol. It was described as a light-colored vehicle with rectangular taillights. It had what appeared to be a luggage rack mounted on the trunk lid and has a damaged or missing right outside mirror.

Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact the patrol at 330-898-2311.