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Shirley Burton remembers her only son, Vernon, as an easy-going man who would always go out of his way to help a friend.
“That's what he liked to do, work on cars and help anybody who was in trouble,” she said.
Burton was doing just that early Sunday along the Storz Expressway, moments before he was killed.
Police said the 33-year-old Omaha man was helping his childhood friend Darrell Avant, 34, change a tire on Avant's Chevrolet Blazer when a sport utility vehicle struck the Blazer and both men.
Burton died at the scene. Avant was seriously injured, with a broken leg and elbow. The driver of the SUV left the scene.
About five hours later, police arrested the man they think is responsible for the incident.
Police booked Scott Ruffcorn, 36, into the Douglas County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide and a felony charge of leaving the scene of an injury accident.
Burton said her son lived at home all his life. He graduated from Omaha Northwest High School in 1995, she said, and worked at auto shops in the area and a local Walmart.
“He was just a good-natured guy — I've often told him that,” she said. “He was a mama's boy, that's all I can say.”
A mix of classic and modern policing techniques went into the search for the suspect.
Officers took the snow-covered pieces of the hit-and-run vehicle that were left at the scene of the accident to Omaha Police Headquarters.
They used computer searches and photographs to determine that the pieces came from a Ford Explorer manufactured between 1986 and 1994, said Sgt. Doug Klein of the Omaha Police Department.
From there, Officers Rich Uryasz and Adam Rokes scoured the eastern part of Omaha for vehicles that matched the profile. Rokes had helped to find the vehicle involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident last week that killed Jose Sandoval, 57, Klein said.
“They were just out there beating the streets, looking for the car,” Klein said.
Eventually the officers arrived at a house near the intersection of Fifth and Jaynes Streets, where they found a battered Ford Explorer parked in front.
As the officers checked the damage, Klein said, Ruffcorn came outside and talked to police. He was arrested soon after.
Court and prison records indicate that Ruffcorn has an extensive criminal history in Douglas County.
In March 2007 he was sentenced to two to three years in prison after being convicted of his fifth driving while intoxicated charge.
He was released July 30, 2008, and was on parole until September of that year, according to prison records. Ruffcorn's history also includes firearms and drug possession-related offenses.
Klein said Ruffcorn was driving on a suspended license. A relative of Ruffcorn's owns the Explorer and was cited for not having insurance.
Police were unable to determine whether Ruffcorn was intoxicated at the time of the accident, because of the length of time between the accident and the arrest, Klein said.
Contact the writer:
444-1068, johnny.perez@owh.com
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