A 92-year-old North County man has been identified as the suspected hit-and-run driver whose car struck and killed a teenage skateboarder on a Vista street over the weekend, a sheriff's official reported Monday. Deputy Ed Macken said he was conducting traffic control near a memorial at the site of the fatal accident when the senior citizen approached him on Saturday evening and said his car had struck something in the area the previous night.

About 7 p.m. Friday, an eastbound sedan hit 15-year-old Lucas Giaconelli as he was skateboarding with friends in the 1700 block of Thibodo Road. The boy died at a hospital about an hour later. The elderly man told Macken he didn't stop following the crash because he believed his vehicle had struck an animal or a bird. He said he only realized a person had died there when he saw the roadside candlelight vigil, Macken said.

"The man's vehicle was tentatively identified as involved after it was examined and evidence (was) collected at the sheriff's lab," the deputy said.

Following completion of investigations into the fatal accident, the Sheriff's Department will forward the case to the District Attorney's Office, which will determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Giaconelli was a freshman at Rancho Buena Vista High School, where grief counselors were on hand for students, many of whom were walking around with shirts that read "R.I.P. Lucas."

Laurel Ryser who said she knew Lucas since middle school said, "A lot of teachers were really upset because they knew Lucas. He was in their class; it's just sad."