Driver charged in fatal hit-and-run of Fauquier County farmer: 'It hits close to home'

FAUQUIER COUNTY, Va. - A Northern Virginia man was arrested after allegedly hitting a 73-year-old farmer in Fauquier County. 

Dennis Dunning, 54, was arrested on Wednesday in a fatal hit-and-run crash on Friday, November 8. He's been charged with felony hit-and-run, involuntary manslaughter, and operating a vehicle without an ignition interlock.

Dennis Dunning, 54. Mugshot courtesy of Virginia State Police. 

Officials say that Garland J. Heddings, 73, was walking eastbound across Route 806 on Friday evening just before 6 p.m. when he was struck by two vehicles driving in opposite directions. Heddings died at the scene. 

Virginia State Police are still looking for a second driver who also struck Heddings, and kept going. 

Heddings was a life-long Fauquier County farmer, who was picking up his mail Friday evening when he was struck and killed, according to his daughter. 

 "At the end of the day after working he would stop at the mailbox, get the mail and come home. I mean for years he's always had that same routine," said Jamie Hill. 

Heddings was a third-generation farmer, working the farmland in Catlett, Virginia. 

"There is a comfort in knowing that they made arrest. but it's a little discouraging as him as a human being that he did not come forward before. When he is like a neighbor... that's a little discouraging," said daughter Jaricia Heddings. "It hits close to home that someone or two people could hit a human being and not stop to even see what you hit"