POLK COUNTY, Fla. – After a small child was killed by a hit-and-run driver this week, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced that the suspect has finally been caught.
In a release, deputies said that the driver — now identified as Victoria Johnson, 30 — struck two young children outside of a church on Wednesday night.
Per the sheriff’s office, one of the children was an 8-year-old who died from his injuries. The other is 10 years old and has been hospitalized with a broken leg, broken arm and skull fracture.
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“The children, who are not siblings, were there for a church function...” deputies wrote. “After a truck passed, the children began to make their way across the street toward the church, but they were both hit by a northbound vehicle.”
Afterward, the vehicle drove off, deputies reported.
But following an “around-the-clock investigation,” Johnson was pinned as the driver and booked in the Polk County Jail on Thursday evening, Judd declared.
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“The suspect vehicle — a 2009 blue Hyundai Santa Fe — was located and seized from a resident on SR 60 East in Lake Wales," the release reads. “The investigation is ongoing on how and why it ended up there.”
Now, Johnson faces charges of leaving the scene of a crash, tampering with evidence, filing a false police report, and driving with a suspended license.
Deputies said her criminal history includes a November 2025 arrest by the Winter Haven Police Department for DUI.