The New Orleans Police Department announced Wednesday afternoon that they arrested a suspect in a deadly hit-and-run incident that happened on Easter Sunday in 2022.
Police say they got their break in the case with a traffic stop Tuesday. While working in the 2600 block of Sage Street, where residents had been complaining about wrong-way drivers, police stopped one Destiny Goodman on a violation of driving against traffic.
Police say Goodman provided them with a false identity, but once they determined her real ID, found that she had several active warrants including domestic battery, criminal damage, and a parole violation.
It was while investigating these matters that police say one of the detectives recognized Goodman's name. She had been identified as a person of interest in a deadly hit-and-run crash that, coincidentally, involved the suspect vehicle driving against traffic at N. Miro and Pauger streets on April 17, 2022.
That detective notified the lead investigator in the 2022 crash, and after further questioning, police say Goodman confessed to being behind the wheel that day, and fleeing the scene after the crash.
Two people died from injuries sustained in that crash and three more were injured.
Officers booked Goodman on two counts of manslaughter.
"This is a great example of officers staying alert, following the information in front of them and taking that extra step," said New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick. "A traffic stop led detectives back to a case that had been waiting years for an answer."
