An escaped felon crashed into two people before the start of a Christmas parade in South Jersey over the weekend.
Michael Morelli, 45, slammed into a woman and then struck a man several feet away along Bayshore Road near Pontaxit Avenue in North Cape May before Saturday night’s Lower Township Rotary Club’s 34th Annual Christmas Parade, said Lower Township Police.
The wreck left a woman in the middle of the road with injuries that required her being medivaced to the Atlantic City Medical Center in stable condition and left the man clinging to a nearby pole with injuries that left him hospitalized in stable condition at Cape Regional Medical Center, said police.
Following the wreck, two passengers in Morelli’s car ran off but they later came back, said police.
Investigators found that Morelli, a cook from Wildwood Crest, had an outstanding warrant for felony escape in Tennessee and was wanted for failure to appear in court in Hammonton Township.
A judge set bail at $250,000 and send Morelli to Cape May County jail on charges of leaving the scene of an accident while he awaited extradition back to Tennessee, said police.
One of Morelli’s passengers, Frank Richardson, was also found to have a warrant for failure to appear in Middle Township, said police. Richardson also faces charges for failing to report a crash.
