CHUBBUCK — A 36-year-old local man was arrested Sunday after police say he struck a pedestrian with his SUV on Yellowstone Avenue in Chubbuck Friday evening before fleeing the scene.

Axel Gustavo Ruiz-Villa, of Aberdeen, has been charged with one felony count of fleeing the scene of an injury accident following the Chubbuck police investigation.

Around 6 p.m. Friday Chubbuck police were dispatched to a hit-and-run pedestrian versus vehicle collision in the area of Yellowstone Avenue near TJ Maxx, according to a police report the Idaho State Journal recently obtained.

Upon arrival, officers observed a woman lying in the middle of Yellowstone Avenue with a blanket draped on top of her and several bystanders standing near her, police said.

Officers interviewed a man who witnessed the collision who said that he had conducted a U-turn on Yellowstone Avenue shortly before stopping to allow the woman to cross the street in the crosswalk. He told the officers that he next observed a late ’90s or early 2000s white Jeep Cherokee fail to slow down at all after running a red light and then strike the woman, according to the police report.

The man told officers that the woman was crossing Yellowstone Avenue from near TJ Maxx and heading toward the Pine Ridge Mall when she was struck, police said. The man also said that he observed a large piece of plastic fall off the suspect vehicle when the collision occurred. The piece of plastic was still in the roadway when police arrived.

Officers located a part number on the piece of plastic and used it to identify the suspect vehicle as a 2007 Dodge Nitro SUV, police said.

The woman was loaded into an ambulance and transported to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello for treatment of serious injuries, police said.

The officers then went back to Chubbuck police headquarters and looked at street camera footage showing the suspect vehicle — a white 2007 Dodge Nitro with a black stripe on the passenger side of the hood.

On Sunday, the woman who was struck was still sedated in the intensive care unit at PMC, police said. Her name and further updates on her condition have not been released.

Around 7:15 p.m. Sunday, a Power County Sheriff’s Office deputy contacted Chubbuck police to report that he believed he had located the Dodge Nitro at a home in American Falls.

A Chubbuck police detective as well as a bi-lingual Idaho State Police trooper responded to the American Falls home where the suspect vehicle was found and questioned the occupants of the home, police said.

The homeowners said that a cousin of theirs, Ruiz-Villa, who they had not seen in years showed up on Friday night and said that he had struck something on the interstate and asked if he could park his Dodge Nitro at their house, according to the police report.

The homeowners provided officers with Ruiz-Villa’s name and a brief description of his physical characteristics, including the two tattoos on his neck, police said. The homeowners said that Ruiz-Villa worked at a farm in Aberdeen and that he had asked them to drive him home that evening, according to the police report.

The white Dodge Nitro was then towed from the home by authorities, and state police were able to locate Ruiz-Villa at an address in Aberdeen a short time later.

Ruiz-Villa was then taken to the Chubbuck Police Department for questioning, during which he admitted to striking the woman on Friday evening, police said.

Ruiz-Villa told officers that a black truck made an illegal U-turn in front of him on Yellowstone Avenue and cut him off which angered him, adding that as he was cussing out the driver of the truck he heard what sounded like something falling out of the back of the truck and hitting his vehicle, according to the police report.

Ruiz-Villa said he thought a large water jug had hit his SUV and he was scared because he did not have a driver’s license so he fled the scene, police said.

Ruiz-Villa also drew officers a diagram of where he was heading at the time of the collision and admitted that he typically wears glasses but was not wearing them when the crash occurred, said police, adding that Ruiz-Villa was unable to read the word “Madre” when written in big letters and held out at arm’s length.

Ruiz-Villa was then arrested for the hit-and-run incident and booked into the Bannock County Jail in Pocatello.

He appeared in front of 6th District Judge David Hooste for an arraignment hearing on Monday, during which his bond was set at $50,000.

Ruiz-Villa is due back in court on Feb. 15 for a preliminary hearing that will involve local prosecutors attempting to prove there is enough evidence against him to elevate the case from the magistrate to district court level for trial.

If convicted of the felony leaving the scene of an injury accident charge, Ruiz-Villa faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.