Man arrested in Jacksonville hit-and-run that killed woman in January<\/a><\/p>\nThe crash that started the search<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office says Rivera-Russo was speeding down University Boulevard in January when he rear-ended Savana\u2019s car, sending it into a telephone pole. As her car caught fire, investigators say Rivera-Russo got out of his vehicle and ran. Savana died at the scene.<\/p>\n
The months that followed were agonizing for the people who loved her.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeeling like this person has just gotten away with it, it\u2019s scot-free and it\u2019s off, we don\u2019t know where he is, if he\u2019s out of the country,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cThat unknowing just left it as like an open wound that could never fully scab over or fully heal.\u201d<\/p>\n
SWAT team moves in to make the arrest<\/p>\n
The search ended when investigators tracked Rivera-Russo to a home in Oakleaf. The Clay County Sheriff\u2019s Office says its SWAT team used gas after attempts to get him out of the home. He surrendered and was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
Saleh says it\u2019s already been a surreal adjustment \u2014 one the arrest only deepens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already so much of a surreal adjustment to not have her here to talk to and navigate all of life with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Just think about her light\u2019<\/p>\n
Saleh says she wants the public to remember Savana the way she did \u2014 not through the lens of the crash or the suspect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope that people continue to keep that memory of her life and don\u2019t think about the accident. Don\u2019t think about what this guy did,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cJust think about her light and her laugh and her generosity and her willingness to do anything for the people she loved, because that\u2019s all we have left.\u201d<\/p>\n
What comes next<\/p>\n
Rivera-Russo now faces charges including vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly crash. The investigation is not over. JSO says investigators are also looking into whether anyone helped Rivera-Russo hide during the months they were searching for him.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Tatiana Saleh spent four hours on the phone with her best friend Savana Pendarvis the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-393459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}