An Ironton man died after being involved in a hit and run accident on Wednesday night.

IPD detective Capt. Brian Pauley said the police department got a call around 7 p.m. Wednesday night about a person lying in the road near the corner of South Seventh and Adams streets. Officers were at a call nearby when the call came in and were there with a “minute or two.”

“Officers rendered first aid until EMTs arrived,” he said. The man was taken to St. Mary’s Trauma in Huntington, West Virginia.”

The man, identified as Leo Molenda, 63, of Ironton, died on Thursday morning around 8:20 a.m.

Pauley said Molenda was walking, probably returning home from the grocery store. He said preliminary toxicology screening didn’t show alcohol or drugs in the man’s system.

“We believe the incident occurred in the crosswalk of South Seventh and Adams streets, but he was found probably 15 feet or so from the intersection in the center of Seventh Street,” Pauley said.

Pauley said that a preliminary investigation hasn’t turned up any suspects or leads.

“We have been going around to houses, trying to see if anyone has any type of video footage of the accident,” he said. “We have been unsuccessful so far, but we do urge people who live in the area, if they do have any kind of camera system to please reach out to us let us know if they captured anything.”

He said they are looking at a time frame of 6:50–7:10 p.m. on Wednesday.

If anyone has information in this case, they can call the IPD Detective Bureau at 740-532-3525 or the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office at 740-532-3525.

Pauley said one thing he was not happy about was people on social media posting about Molenda before the police could locate family to tell them what happened.

“We have people on Facebook who don’t know, who have no idea what is going on, and they are spreading misinformation and putting pictures on Facebook, before we even knew who his family is at that point,” he said. “It not only hinders the investigation, it is rather disrespectful to the victim. If this happened to them, they would be upset if it was their family members lying on the ground and people were taking pictures and posting pictures before they even knew what had taken place.”