Two Indian students killed in US hit-and-run on Thanksgiving night

Police identified them as Vybhav Gopisetty, 26, and Judy Stanley Pinheiro, 23. They were students of food science at the Tennessee State University.

Two students from India were killed in a hit-and-run accident in South Nashville, in the US state of Tennessee, on the night of Thanksgiving on Thursday.

The Indian consulate in Atlanta is in touch with the families of the victims. (Getty Images/ Representative Image)

Police identified them as Vybhav Gopisetty, 26, and Judy Stanley Pinheiro, 23. They were students of food science at the Tennessee State University.

Their car, a Nissan Sentra that was being driven by Gopisetty, was hit by a GMC pick-up truck, the Nashville police have said, according to local media reports. The pick-up driver, David Torres, fled on foot and remains at large. the police have released his picture and sought public help to apprehend him.

Louis Mireles, a witness, told News 4 that he was walking to a bus stop when he heard the accident. “Boom boom like that and I looked backward. It was right there I would’ve been dead right there but something told me to step back.”

He told the news channel he saw Torres run away. from the crime scene.

The university said in a statement, “The Tennessee State University family is mourning the loss of two TSU students killed in an auto accident Thanksgiving night. Judy Stanley, 23, and Vybhav Gopisetty, 26, were both graduate students from India pursuing food science degrees in the College of Agriculture. Stanley was seeking a master’s, and Gopisetty a doctorate.”