Emma Briceno, 25, critically injured in Bellingham hit-and-run car accident on E. Chestnut Street and Railroad Avenue

A pedestrian was critically injured in a hit-and-run in Bellingham early Sunday. A suspect was later arrested. Bellingham Police say officers found a 25-year-old Ferndale woman at 1:47 a.m. at the intersection of E. Chestnut Street and Railroad Avenue. She had been hit by a car and the driver fled the scene before officers arrived. The woman was legally crossing a well-lighted street in a marked crosswalk when the suspect vehicle sped through the area and struck her. Witnesses said the driver of the suspect vehicle was operating the car in a reckless manner, completing a “donut," hitting a car and then striking the woman. The suspect vehicle also collided with a parked vehicle as it was speeding away from the scene. The woman sustained life threatening injuries and was treated initially at St Joseph Hospital and was then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was in critical condition. At about 9:50 a.m. the suspect vehicle was located by a Western Washington University Police Department officer abandoned in a university parking lot. At about 10:10 a.m. a 29-year-old Custer man was arrested and booked into the Whatcom County Jail. UPDATE: The victim in this accident has been identified as Emma Briceno, a mother of three small children. The alleged driver is in the Whatcom Co. jail on $500,000.00 bail.