Man arrested in woman's hit-run death in Randolph

RANDOLPH -- Acting on a tip, police yesterday arrested a 43 -year-old man in the hit-and-run death of a Randolph woman, a relative of the victim said.

The early-morning arrest did little to console the family who had lost their aunt, sister, and confidant, but it helped bring a small measure of closure to an awful situation, relatives said.

"We're praying for the perpetrator . . . We're thankful for the person who turned him in," said Angela Hyman , 34, of Boston, one of many nieces of Shirley A. Sutton, 57, who died at 6 p.m. Friday while walking home from the bus stop on Warren Avenue, not far from the Randolph movie theater.

Sutton worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was killed as she was coming home from work, relatives said.

Yesterday afternoon, Hyman, along with her husband and her sister, collected a hot-pink sign and a teddy bear facing the road that begged drivers to come forward if they knew who had hit Sutton, who was single.

They took the sign down because someone who had seen the Ford pick-up truck whose driver was suspected in the death had come forward, and they did not feel it was right to leave the sign up.

Police told the family that the driver thought he had hit a shopping cart, according to Joyce Walker, 37, another niece who flew up from Durham, N.C. to help plan the funeral.

"It's incomprehensible that someone would not know that they hit someone," said Walker, who grew up in Boston. "She was not a small woman. Even if you hit a dog, have the humanity to pull over."

Walker praised initial media reports stating that police were looking for a damaged vehicle, and said she wanted people to know her aunt was a good woman.

"She has a lot of family, and is not just some random, unidentified woman like you saw on the news," Walker said. "She was a wonderful Christian and a caring and giving woman. There is a void. She will be missed."

The women also thanked Mary Ford , whose three little dogs were so disturbed by the sound of the fatal impact that they would not let Ford get back to her Friday afternoon nap. Ford, still upset over the incident, called police.

"I heard the crash, but didn't see anyone, so I laid back down," said Ford, who remembered that the weather was stormy and that the sun had gone down. "But my dogs kept scratching and whimpering, and I said 'OK, I'll go down and look.' I saw a woman, and I called 911."

Sutton was one of 11 children. She is survived by six siblings. One of Sutton's sisters died recently, making it more difficult for the family, other family members said. To help ease the pain, the nieces and nephews decided to work with the police and plan the funeral, family members said.

Sutton's wake is planned for Thursday; her funeral is set for 11 a.m. Friday, at Roxbury's Twelfth Baptist Church, her nieces said.

Randolph police did not return calls to The Boston Globe yesterday, and an officer on duty said that the agency's spokesman, Chief Paul Porter, could be reached only during business hours.

Still, Sutton's family does not wish ill upon the driver. Walker voiced hope that the legal system would prevail. Hyman expressed hope that God's love might be seen through all of it.

Said Hyman's husband, Antoine Hyman , 31:"For me, if it's just possible to pray with him. That's all."

Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at asamuels@globe.com.