An Eatonton man who reportedly was dancing in the street was struck and killed by a vehicle Friday evening.
Jontrell Waller, 39, of Eatonton, was killed around 6:35 p.m. Dec. 9, said Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
The 911 center received several calls that evening, the first one came in at approximately 6:22 p.m. with the caller saying a man was dancing in the middle of Greensboro Road while holding up what appeared to be a tall, aluminum beer can, Sills said.
The caller said the street dancer, later identified as Waller, was near the Lick Creek bridge, which is close to the Marathon gas station, Sills added.
While deputies were en route to the scene, a second 911 call came in from a driver who reported that a man “jumped in front of (his) vehicle and threw his hands up.”
A third driver called immediately after that and said he had just struck a man who was in the middle of the road. The last two callers/drivers said they were on Greensboro Road where Alexander Road intersects with it, and they gave the same description of the pedestrian that the first caller had given.
“So, it just so happened that before my deputies got there, he had moved down the road a little way and he was struck by a vehicle,” Sills said.
The driver, Christopher Worthen, 33, of Macon, was driving southbound on State Route 44 in his Dodge Journey when he struck Waller.
Sills said Worthen was arrested on charges of driving with suspended registration and no insurance. He was released on $1,097.50 property bond, according to jail records.
Worthen was not charged for hitting Waller with his vehicle because he did nothing wrong to cause that, Sills said.
“It was a dark, rainy night, and based on the information provided by independent witnesses and other callers and evidence at the scene, Waller was in the road in traffic,” he explained.
The victim was dead when rescuers arrived, so was not taken to the hospital for treatment, Putnam Sheriff Col. Russell Blenk said. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner Pat Welch.
Funeral arrangements for Waller, which were not complete at press time, are being handled by Bernard’s Family Funeral Care in Eatonton. The Waller family and friends are not only grieving his loss but that of grandmother/mother Frances Waller, who died two days later, according to the funeral home’s website and family members’ social media posts.