Pedestrian Killed on Tuscaloosa Interstate Was Missing Aliceville Man

A pedestrian who was fatally struck by a vehicle on the interstate in Tuscaloosa last week has been identified as an Aliceville man who went missing the day before the accident.

Last Thursday, June 2nd, the Tuscaloosa Police Department reported that a pedestrian walking in predawn darkness on Interstate 359 near Oscar Baxter Drive in Tuscaloosa had been struck by a passing vehicle.

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Days later, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency issued a missing and endangered person alert for Ray Charles Lewis, a 63-year-old man from Aliceville, Alabama who had not been seen since June 1st. The identify of the victim of the traffic accident had not been publicly released when the alert was issued Monday night.

That alert was canceled Tuesday morning, and the Aliceville Police Department later confirmed their search was called off because Lewis had been identified as the man killed on the highway in Tuscaloosa last week.

APD Police Chief Tonnie Jones released a statement Tuesday saying that the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences had positively identified Lewis via autopsy this week.

Jones thanked the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office and the 24th Judicial Circuit District Attorney's office for assisting his department in trying to find Lewis and asked West Alabama to keep the victim's family in their thoughts and prayers.

"I wish we had a different outcome for the Lewis family, for the community, and the group of law enforcement officers and searchers who put everything they had into finding Mr. Ray Charles Lewis alive," Jones said.