Police: Man got Taco Bell after running down pedestrian

(AP) -- Police say a 66-year-old Massachusetts man stopped to get food from Taco Bell immediately after running down a pedestrian and fled the scene in his heavily damaged vehicle.

The Republican newspaper reports (http://bit.ly/2ckqCH2 ) Robert Loranger pleaded not guilty Monday to motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and other charges.

Police say Loranger told officers he thought he struck a cardboard box in Springfield on Friday, not a person. Fifty-one-year-old Harry Fernandez was transported to a hospital, where he died.

Loranger was arrested after police found hair, blood and body tissue embedded in the windshield of his Cadillac. Surveillance video shows the car pull into the drive-thru lane of a nearby Taco Bell restaurant shortly after the accident occurred.

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Information from: The Springfield (Mass.) Republican, http://www.masslive.com/news/

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