A man died in a November 7th, 2024 hit and run incident in Bethel, Alaska. Forrest Jones Jenkins Sr. operated a motor vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury or death to another person and he failed to remain at the scene of the accident to render reasonable assistance to the injured person, according to charging documents.
On 11/7/24, Bethel Police Department responded to an accident involving a pedestrian on State Highway near the airport in Bethel. Upon arrival, an officer contacted medics performing life saving measures on a male. There were vehicle parts belonging to a gray Toyota laying around the scene.
There was no vehicle matching that description near the crash site. The male was transported to the YKHC hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
Several hours later, Bethel police officer observed a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle, a gray Toyota with front end damage near Ptarmigan. The officer performed a traffic stop with the vehicle and contacted the driver, Forrest Jenkins. The officer asked Mr. Jenkins what happened to the front of his vehicle and he replied that he hit a person and got scared and went to a friend’s house to take a steam bath. Mr. Jenkins did not stop immediately after the accident and did not give notice by the quickest means possible to the police department as required.
On February 18th, 2025 Forrest Jenkins was found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident without assisting the injured. He was sentenced to serve ½ year and 3 years probation.
