{"id":455747,"date":"2026-09-06T22:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455747\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:28:40","slug":"man-arrested-in-fatal-long-beach-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455747\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested in fatal Long Beach hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">LONG BEACH, Miss. (<a data-ylk=\"slk:WJTV;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wjtv.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">WJTV<\/a>) &#8211; Long Beach police announced a man was arrested in connection to a fatal hit-and-run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Eric C. Smith, 46, of Gulfport, was arrested on September 2, 2026. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident-causing fatality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Mississippi man charged with poisoning child, molestation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wjtv.com\/news\/state\/mississippi-man-charged-with-poisoning-child-molestation\/?IPID=Crime?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Mississippi man charged with poisoning child, molestation\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to police, the hit-and-run occurred on 1st Street on August 30, 2026. They said Smith struck Jimmy Alexander Mero with his vehicle and left the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mero was transported to Gulfport Memorial Hospital where he died from his injuries.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Eric C. Smith (Courtesy: Long Beach PD)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wjtv_jackson_articles_164\/017090261278c9df98d36cf0f6ac7820.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Eric C. Smith (Courtesy: Long Beach PD)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Smith was transported to the Harrison County Adult Detention Center and is being held on a $250,000 bond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[sailthru_widget name=&#8221;Sailthru Widget Block&#8221; sailthru_list=&#8221;Daily News&#8221; title=&#8221;Daily News&#8221;] Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wjtv.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Miss. (WJTV) &#8211; Long Beach police announced a man was arrested in connection to a fatal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[178544,131,133,132,1573,179872],"class_list":["post-455747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-eric-c-smith","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-smith","tag-wjtv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}